


Meet Me at the Top

by Karasuno Volleygays (ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Boys Are Dumb, Extremely Mild Profanity, First Kiss, M/M, Mention of Severe Injury, Weird Kageyama Angst, relationship angst, third year first years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2015-06-29
Packaged: 2018-04-05 18:00:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4189590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToBeOrNotToBeAGryffindor/pseuds/Karasuno%20Volleygays
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As he took the reins going into his third year, Yamaguchi Tadashi knew he had to keep an eye on his vice-captain. However, Kageyama was weird, then things got weird, and before he knew it, Tadashi was staring at his ceiling while coming to a startling realization.</p><p>Oh. <i>Oh!</i> Ohhhhhh.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kettleowl](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kettleowl/gifts).



> I'd like to thank both the requester and the exchange mods for giving me a reason/opportunity to write this pairing. I never considered it before two weeks ago, but now I am in love with YamaYama.
> 
> To my giftee, I hope you can enjoy this story as much as I do, because you made me fall for a pairing I had never considered. Smooth of you, kettleowl dear. Very smooth. I did consider writing for the BokuAka instead, but as a fellow rare-pairer, I know the thirst of shipping something where there is nothing OUT THERE! (Hey, I ship Kageyama/Akaashi. That's so rare I'm pretty sure it's still mooing.) So I decided to not only give you something different, but a little lengthier so you can enjoy it for longer.

The slap of the ball hitting the wooden floor was satisfying to Tadashi. In his first year, the sound was smaller and didn't echo in the rafters, but he was a third year with 184 centimeters of height in his favor now. Except for Tsukishima, no one on the team was taller, and he had power and leverage unique to his height that meant this would be the year he would finally get a chance to start.

But he had work to do, even if he was the team captain.

"Gwah!" Yachi exclaimed as she watched the ball speed to the floor. "That was the best one yet."

Tadashi colored at the compliment but didn't brush it off like he used to. It was a hard habit to break, but he needed to be rock solid mentally as well as physically in his new role. It was up to him to show Karasuno's largest crop of freshmen in nearly a decade how to be strong on and off the court. Instead, he gave a quick nod and said, "One more, Yacchan. Maybe a little higher."

"You got it," she chirped as she took another ball out of the almost empty hopper and lobbed it up in front of the net.

His long legs coiled after his run-up, Tadashi launched himself into the air and hit the ball with every modicum of strength he could muster. It barreled to the floor with almost a crack when it hit, but it landed mere inches out of bounds.

"Damn it," Tadashi grumbled. "I keep doing that."

Yachi gave him a broad grin. "You'll get it, Tadashi. I'll help you as much as you need."

"I know you will," Tadashi said as he offered her a weak smile more out of courtesy than belief in the statement. What he needed was something he could only give himself.

With a sigh, he grabbed the hopper and wheeled it to the other side of the Karasuno High School second gymnasium to collect the stray balls. It was the fourth such trip of the night, and he figured it should be the last. It was nearly nightfall, and while he didn't mind walking home in the dark, he wouldn't ask Yachi to risk her safety just for the sake of some extra spiking practice. Their third year had not even begun yet; there was no point in burning himself out before they even hit Golden Week.

As they finished rounding up the stray balls, Yachi nearly jumped out if her skin when a quiet voice said, "You should extend your elbow more."

Dropping the pair of volleyballs in his hands, Tadashi spun around to see Kageyama standing in the door of the gym. He would ask what his new vice-captain was doing there so late, but he had a pretty good idea. "Bottle drills again?"

Kageyama nodded. "I still can't get more than three out of six."

Chuckling, Tadashi replied, "Give it time. Eventually, you'll have them hula dancing for you if you keep glaring at them like that."

Tadashi nearly laughed at Kageyama's puzzled expression, but he just shook his head. "Well, good luck. I'm going to walk Yacchan home. You need the key?"

"Takeda-sensei gave me a set." Without preamble, Kageyama started to stretch, and Tadashi knew the conversation had officially ended.

It was about halfway to the train station before Yachi asked, “What are bottle drills?”

Tadashi explained, “It’s this idea Ukai-san came up with to help Kageyama work on his serve accuracy. There are a number of common formations that teams use for receiving serves. What the drill does is mark the various weak spots in these formations — opportunities to score service aces — with empty water bottles. Kageyama serves from the other side and tries to hit the bottles with his serves.”

Yachi’s eyes grew wide. “Can anyone do that? That seems impossible to me.”

“Oikawa-san from Seijou could do it.” Tadashi frowned. “Kageyama has been working on these drills for a long time, and I don’t know if he will ever do better than three out of six.”

“What’s three out of six?”

“Three hits out of six balls.”

Stopping in her tracks, Yachi threw her arms in the air. “How can anyone do better than that?”

Tadashi reflexively tugged Yachi back onto the sidewalk when her flailing nearly sent her hurtling into the street. “I don’t know if he can, but I know he’s going to try until he does. It’s the front ones that give him the most trouble.”

Yachi frowned. “But what if he doesn’t try his regular jump serve?” When Tadashi raised a brow, she continued. “What if he did the serve you do?”

“Huh,” Tadashi mused. “I’m pretty sure he could do it if he tried. I don’t know how much ball control he’d have, or if the trajectory can be pinpointed like that, but it’s worth a shot. If Takeda-sensei finds out how much extra time Kageyama’s logged in the gym since the Spring Highs ended, he’ll take his key away.”

Quickly, he texted Kageyama to try the jump float as Yachi had suggested, and they resumed their walk in silence. Everyone always got quiet when the Spring Highs came up. It was a sore subject for the whole team, but for Kageyama in particular.

It had been a fiasco, and it uprooted the entire team chemistry when Kageyama had broken his arm diving for a ball in the Inter-High Prefectural Finals. Their scared first-year back-up setter had imploded in the final set to the point where Nishinoya had taken over setting for the spikers.

Kageyama hadn’t been allowed to even touch a ball until after the Spring Highs because he had broken both his radius and ulna clean through. Tadashi almost tasted the vomit he had to swallow at the sight of jagged bone protruding through flesh. One of the first years had fainted, and Hinata cried so hard that he couldn’t play anymore.

Tadashi had never loathed playing in a game more. Not because he had earned it, but because his fellow middle-blocker couldn’t.

The healing alone had taken six months, on top of intense physical therapy. Tadashi couldn’t count how many angry laps Kageyama had run around the gym during practice because it was all he was allowed to do. But as soon as he was cleared to play, Kageyama had turned into a man on a mission, despite Takeda-sensei’s warnings to ease back into it.

So Tadashi made a point of leaving Kageyama alone in his recovery because if anyone on the team was capable of exceeding his own limits, it was Kageyama Tobio. But he never stopped keeping tabs on what Kageyama was doing and thought he might even be brave enough to say something if he decided his vice-captain was overdoing it.

“He’ll be okay, right?” Yachi asked after they left the train, as if she had been reading Tadashi’s thoughts.

“As all right as a guy like him will ever be,” Tadashi replied. And he meant it. If Kageyama could overcome what had happened with him during middle school and be the player he was before his injury, he wouldn’t stop until he got there again and then some.

He bade Yachi a quick goodnight and waited outside until she flipped her light on-off-on to let him know she was safely in her apartment before leaving. Without Yachi for the distraction, his thoughts dwelled on Kageyama.

Tadashi didn’t even realize he had returned to the gym until he stood in front of the door.

Pushing the door open, Tadashi blinked in surprise when he saw Kageyama perform a perfect jump-float serve and hit one of the bottles on the other side.

“You usually miss that one,” he remarked.

Kageyama stiffened at the sound of Tadashi’s voice but didn’t seem too startled. “It was a good idea.”

“Not mine,” Tadashi admitted. “Yachi thought of it, and it seemed worth a shot.”

Nodding, Kageyama picked another ball out of the hopper and turned it in his hands. “Changing serve speeds will expose the enemy’s weaknesses.”

Tadashi chuckled. “They’re the opponent, not the enemy. It’s volleyball, not war.”

When Kageyama’s jaw clenched, Tadashi had an uncomfortable moment of clarity that this wasn’t as obvious to both of them as it should have been.

“So, how many are you at now?” he decided to ask instead.

“Four of five.”

Jaw slack, Tadashi watched as Kageyama performed yet another perfect jump-float serve and hit the final target. “That’s amazing. If you can do that in a game . . .”

“Not until I get all six,” Kageyama growled before stomping to the other side of the court to reset the water bottles.

Tadashi chortled before fetching a few stray balls. Round after round, Kageyama missed the same mark: front row, between the middle and the right side hitter. The tension in Kageyama’s shoulders was obvious when he started missing targets he had hit repeatedly.

It was when Kageyama missed all six and roared in frustration that Tadashi decided that enough was enough. “That’s enough, Kageyama.” He looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s past midnight. Go home and get some rest.”

“No.”  Kageyama picked up another ball and fixed his gaze on the offending bottle. “Not until that one goes down.”

Tadashi gritted his teeth as he ripped the ball from Kageyama’s hands. He tossed it in the air, and with practiced precision, executed a perfect jump-float serve. When the target skittered across the floor in reply, however, both of them were surprised.

“There. It went down, Kageyama. Now please go home before you hurt yourself.” He pushed a still shocked Kageyama towards the door, where his bag was sitting. “Out. I’ll clean up.”

To Tadashi’s genuine shock, Kageyama did as he was told without a word. When he was sure the other boy was long gone, Tadashi rounded up the balls and bottles before rolling the net away. He was just locking up the gym when his text alert sounded.

← Thanks.

→ Take care of yourself. We need you more than we need your serve.  
→ You practicing again tomorrow?

← At 10:00 and then again at 18:00.

→ I’ll be there.

Tadashi huffed as he headed for home. So much for leaving Kageyama on his own.


	2. Chapter 2

Both of them cheered when the final bottle flew from its place on the floor.

“You did it, Kageyama!” Tadashi said as he clapped his teammate on the shoulder. “That’s really something to be proud of, especially considering how long it’s been since you practiced with other players.”

Kageyama glared at Tadashi, who was proud of himself for not flinching. “I know. I have a lot of catching up to do. I’m not nearly at my best.”

Tadashi shook his head and took the ball out of Kageyama’s hands. “No, that’s not what I meant. You’ve made a lot of progress because you’re being diligent. Just don’t backtrack by being stupid.”

_Why did I say that?_ Tadashi scolded himself. He had tried to dole out a genuine compliment and only succeeded in making Kageyama want to push himself even harder.

But years of practice and more than enough failures have given him enough insight into Kageyama’s thought process to at least do damage control. “Now that you did it once, maybe it’s time to try for less reps.”

Kageyama’s nose wrinkled in thought, and Tadashi could almost see the puzzle pieces fight each other before connecting. “To get better at doing it right the first time,” Kageyama said finally. “Consistently.”

“Exactly,” Tadashi all but sighed, relieved that his point had been made and received. “I was so excited when I started making my jump-floats work, but Shimada-san made me do less of them so I had to concentrate on getting the first one right, not the next nine after that.”

Grunting in agreement, Kageyama looked at the ball in Tadashi’s hands. “Can you hit some of my tosses?”

Tadashi grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”

With that, both of them spent an entire hour doing nothing but spiking practice. Tadashi didn’t even pretend that Kageyama’s praise for a good kill didn’t burn proudly in his chest.

As Tadashi rounded up the balls, he glanced at the clock. It was nearly 13:00. He remembered Kageyama saying he was going to practice more later, and that he had probably not eaten since early that morning.

“Hey, you want to grab lunch and hang out at my place until it’s time to come back?” When Kageyama’s head tilted in curiosity, Tadashi gulped before adding, “I know you live pretty far, and there’s no use in wasting half your day on the train when I live two blocks from here.”

Kageyama’s mouth twitched into what Tadashi, after a couple of years’ worth of observation, finally knew to be a smile. “Okay,” Kageyama agreed. “Is that ramen place nearby any good?”

“Ugh, no.” Tadashi’s face crumpled in distaste. “The curry restaurant near my place is a lot better.” As he had suspected, Kageyama’s eyes lit up at the mention of curry. “C’mon. Sometimes, the chefs will make little volleyball-shaped onigiri for me.” He ducked his shoulders as his cheeks turned pink. “I’m kind of a regular. Me and Tsukki. Sometimes Yacchan, too.”

“Oh.” Kageyama shoved his hands in his pockets after slinging his bag over his shoulder. “Will he not practice with you?”

Tadashi shook his head and chuckled. “No extra practice for Tsukki during the break. He’ll go running, and that’s about it.”

Kageyama grumbled something Tadashi couldn’t hear, and since he was fairly certain he didn’t want to, he once again locked the gym behind them and led Kageyama towards his own home. "We can leave our bags and head to the restaurant."

Tadashi's house was a very small, very average house, but he personally thought that the extra effort that his mother put into the garden on her single day off each week made it look just a little bit nicer than the adjacent homes. However, as he and Kageyama got nearer, Tadashi felt a wave of anxiety crash into him like a dump truck. He had nearly forgotten what Hinata had told him about Kageyama's own living situation. More specifically, the fact that Kageyama's father was a pretty important person in the Sony office in Sendai. His house reflected that status.

"I, um, hope you don't mind the house," Tadashi offered hesitantly.

Head tilted to the side, Kageyama asked, "Why would I mind?"

Reddening, Tadashi stammered, "I, um, guess it's, er, too small?"

But Kageyama just shrugged his shoulders. "Doesn't matter. Home is where you dump your stuff."

An empty feeling scratched at Tadashi's gut at that remark. He couldn't imagine the idea of home being condensed to such a simple concept. Home was his mom and dad, the smell of fish frying, the warmth of shoulders slumping together at the kotatsu during the frigid winter months. But Tadashi didn't mention any if this as he unlocked the front door.

"Pardon the intrusion," Kageyama called.

Tadashi offered him a tight smile. "Nobody's home at the moment, but we're not very formal here anyway. The only requirement is a smile." When Kageyama's face twisted like he had eaten a dozen lemons, Tadashi laughed. "I won't tell if you don't."

Kageyama's relief made him want to laugh even harder.

"Relax, Kageyama. It's just me. I know you don't do smiling." With that, he awkwardly patted Kageyama's arm and flopped his own bag in the genkan before indicating for Kageyama to do the same. "Did you want to take a shower first?"

When Kageyama nodded, Tadashi tried to hide his relief that he had a mission rather than small talk to worry about. He fetched a towel and showed Kageyama where to find the various things he would need. Once his guest was in the shower, he guzzled an entire bottle of water to give his hands something to do.

It was easy for him to understand why he had never spent so much time alone with Kageyama before. His crusty setter did not make conversation well, nor did he process regular social cues. Tadashi wasn't used to carrying the weight of a conversation. His parents usually asked him questions, and Tsukishima simply preferred not to talk. The rest of his interactions were volleyball related.

His palms started to slicken with sweat when he realized that he would have to make small talk with Kageyama during lunch and for the rest of the afternoon. Sure, he knew he could cram some volleyball stuff there, but while Kageyama might have enough sports to talk about for six hours, Tadashi was certain he did not.

When Kageyama emerged from the shower ten minutes later, he found Tadashi pacing a hole in the kitchen floor.

"Are you all right, Yamaguchi-san?"

Tadashi cringed before deciding that an abridged version of his true thoughts was the best option. "Yeah. I was just thinking that I don't know much about what you do for fun outside of volleyball. Cards? Video games? Movies?" He knew they didn't have much of any of those things in the house, but it would be nice to know where to start.

Kageyama's eyes lit up in concentration, much the way they did when he was in tune during a match. "Do you, um, have a piano?"

Jolted by surprise, Tadashi scratched his head. "I have an electric keyboard. Sometimes, Tsukki and I remix music and add beat tracks."

It was soft, barely even there, but Tadashi saw the corner of Kageyama's mouth creep up in a soft smile that was nothing like anything Tadashi had seen from him before. "Would you like to play?"

When Kageyama nodded, Tadashi led him to his room - which he had thankfully cleaned the day before - and plugged in the keyboard. "It's touch sensitive and it has pedals, even though I don't know how to use them. I have a little bit of sheet music if you need it." His brows rose hopefully.

"Do you play?"

The question caught Tadashi off guard. "Um, not really. I can play beginner stuff, but nothing too complicated. I don't read music very well."

"Do you sing at all?"

Tadashi could sing; Tadashi _loved_  to sing. He sang in the shower, on the walk to school, anytime he was by himself. But the idea of singing in front of Kageyama terrified him just a little. A lot. It terrified him a lot. "Sort of," he finally grumbled.

"I can play if you want to sing along. It always sounds weird when I sing along. " Kageyama scowled. "I think my voice is bad."

The comment was so out of character for the Kageyama he knew that it made Tadashi want to laugh. "I'm sure it's not that bad. Tsukki has a terrible voice. It's why he listens to music with headphones all the time. So he doesn't have to hear his own voice."

The thought of trumping Tsukishima at something must have been too much for Kageyama to pass up. I'll do harmony, then."

The idea of hearing something as soulful and magical as music coming from Kageyama was exciting for Tadashi. "After we get back, I will look for my music books. They're mostly movie soundtrack songs, but those were the easiest ones I could find and actually play at all."

They left the house and headed towards the restaurant. However, Kageyama stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and looked over at Tadashi. "If you don't really want to spend all day with me, it's okay."

"What?" Tadashi could only stare. "Why would I not want to hang out with you? And why would I offer if I didn't?"

Kageyama hung his head as his fists clenched. "I don't make friends well. I know I'm not an easy person to be around, but I can't help it sometimes."

Tadashi's heart clenched as he observed the sheer dejection radiating from Kageyama. How could he think he had no friends? Most of their teammates liked him well enough, and if he asked, they would do almost anything for him. Tsukishima did not particularly care for Kageyama, but Tadashi couldn't fault Kageyama for that; Tsukishima didn't like anyone much.

Slowly, Tadashi reached out and unfurled Kageyama's hands. "Hey, don't say that," he said quietly. "Hinata's your friend. Yacchan is your friend.  _I'm_  your friend." At Kageyama's startled expression, Tadashi squeezed both of Kageyama's hands. "You're not the same guy you used to be. We're not going to abandon you and we're not going to hate you because you would never give us a reason to."

Realizing how long he had been holding onto Kageyama's hands, Tadashi blushed and stepped back to Kageyama's side. He didn't know what was going through that rigid mask that was on Kageyama's face at the moment, but Tadashi could only hope that at least some of what he had said had sunk in.

As they began walking again, Tadashi said softly, "I'm sorry you didn't know how we all feel about you. And I'm sorry I've known you for two years and didn't even know you could play."

"I miss playing," Kageyama interjected. "I haven't played in years because it made me sad."

"Was it because of your old teammates?"

Kageyama nodded. "Kindaichi used to come over and listen to me play. After that day, he pretended like he didn't even know me for the rest of the school year."

"The one Tanaka-san always called Shallot-kun?" At Kageyama's quiet affirmative, Tadashi furrowed his brow. "I thought he always hated you. You were friends, then?"

Suddenly, Kageyama's reticence about spending the day with him made a lot more sense to Tadashi. It wasn't that Kageyama couldn't make friends; it was that he couldn't keep them because he was, well . . . Kageyama. The late, grueling practices all summer no longer seemed so much like razor sharp focus when they were saturated with Kageyama's loneliness.

They arrived at the restaurant, and Tadashi reflexively smiled at seeing the usual battered old sandwich board outside the door. "Are you allergic to anything?" When Kageyama shook his head, Tadashi gave him a sheepish shrug. "I'm allergic to peanuts. Which sucks, because I love peanut butter."

"Wouldn't that kill you?" Kageyama asked.

"Pretty much." Tadashi sighed. "Every year on my birthday, I get a packet of Reese's cups and an epi pen. Worth it every time."

Glancing over at Kageyama, Tadashi almost laughed out loud when he saw his companion looking at him like he had an extra eyeball on his forehead. "What, I like peanut butter! Would you give up volleyball if you were allergic to shoes?"

"Never," Kageyama answered gravely, and this time, Tadashi did laugh.

"You crack me up, Kageyama."

They stepped into the vestibule of the restaurant, and almost immediately, Tadashi was accosted by a rotund older woman. She crushed him into her large bosom and shouted towards the kitchen, "Tada-chan's here!"

"Tada-chan!" came an echoing chorus of voices, which Tadashi knew belonged to the woman's four sons. She was the owner and hostess and server and cashier, her sons were the chefs and dishwashers and janitors and delivery boys, and Tadashi had practically grown up in this place with Yuki-san treating him like part of her family.

Yuki gave Tadashi's hair a ruffle and said, "It's been almost a week. We were worried about you."

"I've been trying to help with the cooking since I'm on break from school, but my mom has been craving pork curry." Remembering his manners just a little too late to keep his cheeks from reddening in embarrassment. "Yuki-san, this is my friend, Kageyama Tobio. We're teammates."

Kageyama seemed startled when Tadashi introduced him as a friend, but whatever was on his face was quickly smashed into Yuki's shoulder as she hugged him like they hadn't met a minute before.

"It's not every day we get to meet one of Tada-chan's friends!" As she ushered them to Tadashi's favorite table, she beckoned for two cups of tea. "Yachhan and Tsukki-chan are the only ones we ever get to meet."

His mouth moving wordlessly, Kageyama looked over to Tadashi for help as he struggled with how to respond. "Only the best for you, Yuki-san," Tadashi offered.

Yuki squealed as she bustled off, and Tadashi could swear he saw Kageyama mouth 'thank you.'

"She means well." He plucked a menu from the holster on the wall and pushed it towards Kageyama. "I can personally recommend anything and everything. It's all amazing."

Kageyama's eyes widened when he glanced over the menu. "Pork curry."

"I thought so." He grinned as Yuki returned with a large bowl of edamame. "What's good today, Yuki-san?"

Yuki swatted Tadashi with her order taking pad. "Everything is good." She looked at Kageyama thoughtfully. "I thought I heard this young man mention pork curry. How about a big dish of that and the volleyball onigiri you love so much?"

Tadashi's and Kageyama's gazes met over the table, and the decision was made.

As they waited for their food, they quietly munched on edamame. The lack of conversation didn't feel uncomfortable at all, mostly because Kageyama seemed intensely interested in his food. Tadashi found himself watching Kageyama's deft fingers shelling the soybeans and thought about those same digits dancing over the keys of a piano.

He was probably good. Of course he was. Kageyama may have been bad with people and school, but when it came to using his hands, his setter had always seemed so coordinated. Tadashi couldn't say the same for himself, but he didn't mind a little awkwardness, just as long as he didn't maim himself or someone else.

"So, what kind of music did you like when you played before?" Tadashi asked.

Kageyama looked momentarily confused as his hands stopped mid-task. After a few blinks, he scratched his head. "I just played whatever was there. Play through a couple of times to understand the rhythm, once more for accuracy, and then I move on to the next song."

Tadashi raised a brow. "You don't play anything just because you like it?"

"I . . . don't really know what I like." Kageyama stared at his tea before taking a sip. "I just wanted to play."

Though he couldn't understand it at all, Tadashi smiled and said, "That sounds about right."

"Huh?"

Shrugging, Tadashi answered, "Oh, I don't know. It's kind of how you are about volleyball. As long as it's volleyball, you're there for it. But don't you listen to music?"

Kageyama shook his head as his cheeks turned pink. "I don't like headphones."

It started with a chuckle, but before he could stop himself, Tadashi’s face was buried in the crook of his elbow as he laughed out loud until there were tears in his eyes. He heard Kageyama sputtering across from him, but his mirth had taken on a life of its own. When Tadashi was finally able to raise his head, Kageyama was stuffing soybeans into his pouting mouth.

Wiping his eyes with the back of his hand, Tadashi said, “Sorry. I shouldn’t laugh, but are headphones really all that’s stopping you from listening to music? Your dad works at _Sony_ , and you don’t listen to music because you don’t like _headphones_?” He has to bite the side of his hand to keep from laughing all over again.

Kageyama turned bright red before averting his eyes. Tadashi felt guilty for embarrassing him, but there were few things he could not tolerate. The lack of music was definitely one of them. “How about I show you how to find all the music you want on your laptop?”

Still looking at anything but Tadashi, Kageyama nodded.

Their food arrived moments later, with a stern warning from Yuki that growing boys need to be strong and to eat it all. Tadashi almost doubted their ability to comply until a half hour later, when Kageyama was finally finished. Tadashi looked over the table and the devastation that was the remainder of their meal.

“I can’t believe we ate all that,” Tadashi moaned. “How are we going to move after this?”

Kageyama gave him a questioning look, his lips pursed and brows drawn. “With our . . . legs?”

Tadashi blinked before cracking a broad smile. “You just made a joke, didn’t you?” When Kageyama’s lips quirked upwards in reply, Tadashi snorted. “You should do that more often. You look happier when you’re laughing, and not like you’re plotting murder.”

The joke was terrible, Tadashi knew, but the pleasure on Kageyama’s face was worth every bad play on words. These were the things he wished he had known about Kageyama ages ago; they made him seem more relatable and less like he existed on a different plane from the rest of them.

Yuki bustled over with a takeaway box and patted Tadashi on the cheek. “Now you take this home for your mother, and don’t be a stranger, Tada-chan!”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tadashi agreed. However, he cringed as Yuki set her sights on Kageyama.

But Kageyama stood and bowed deeply. “Thank you for the excellent meal, Yuki-san.”

Yuki ruffled Kageyama’s hair and gave him a swat on the shoulder. “Skinny things like you and Tada-chan are always welcome here. I’ll fatten you boys up properly.”

Kageyama stuck his hands in his trouser pockets and pulled out his wallet. Tadashi tugged Kageyama off to the side and explained, “Don’t worry about it. My mom works late a lot at her shop, so she made a deal with Yuki-san. I eat here whenever I need to, and Yuki-san gets her meat and vegetables at cost.”

“Oh,” Kageyama said softly. “Your parents work late, too?”

Tadashi nodded. “I spend a lot of time at Tsukki’s house so I’m not stuck at home by myself. It gets lonely.”

“Lonely,” Kageyama echoed, though Tadashi wasn’t sure that was directed towards him.


	3. Chapter 3

They left the restaurant much quieter than when they came. Though he didn’t know what was going on in Kageyama’s head, Tadashi’s mind was busy enough in its own right. Tadashi had spent a lot of his childhood in solitude once he was old enough to stay home on his own, and his friendship with Tsukishima had changed everything.

Kageyama hadn’t had that luxury and had filled the void with soulless practice. All at once, the memory of all the times he and Tsukishima had mocked Kageyama without actually knowing who he was barreled into Tadashi like a bullet train.

Rather than feeling sorry for Kageyama, this only made Tadashi admire his teammate for not using it as an excuse for his bad behavior in middle school. He was still clueless about a lot of things, but not about things that matter. Not anymore. And he was a lot more fun that Tadashi would have expected, once the initial awkwardness passed.

With a soft sigh, he lightly punched Kageyama in the shoulder. “We should hang out more often.”

Kageyama gaped at him as he stopped mid-stride on the sidewalk. “What?”

Tadashi kneaded his bottom lip with his teeth and looked down. “You know — you come over to my house, I come over to yours. Eat lunch together at school here and there. Talk about girls. Whatever seems fun at the time.”

The color fled Kageyama’s face. “I — I don’t know if you would like that.”

“Why?”

Head hanging low, Kageyama murmured, “I don’t think about girls that way.”

Turning this statement over in his head, Tadashi was not clueless as to its meaning, nor about how important it was that Kageyama had chosen to share this with him. It didn’t change how he thought about his newest friend, and he wanted Kageyama to know that.

“Okay,” Tadashi said as casually as he could. “We could talk about boys if you want. I’m not picky.”

Kageyama shook his head. “I don’t think about anyone like that.”

Tadashi knew where this was going, and now that he knew about this secret part of Kageyama, he felt like they might actually have a chance of understanding each other. “It’s okay. Nothing weird about that. I shouldn’t have assumed.”

At this, Kageyama’s head raised slightly, his eyes scanning Tadashi through his draping fringe. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Tadashi saw a bus stop bench nearby and led Kageyama over there. He set down the takeaway box next to him and gave Kageyama his full attention. “Do you know anything about asexuality?”

Kageyama shook his head, and Tadashi’s heart sank. He could only imagine how one would feel being around hormonally charged teenage boys and not being able to share in the discussions about this or that hot girl, but not knowing why he couldn’t experience it in the same way.

Taking a deep breath, Tadashi looked for words would make both of them the least uncomfortable. “Asexuality is where you, um . . . you might like a person romantically, but you don’t want to do anything —”

When Kageyama frowned in confusion, Tadashi sighed and threw comfort out the window. “You can love someone and want to be with them, but you don’t really want to have sex with them. For instance, if you and I were dating: we might never go beyond kissing and cuddling, even though we were really in love, because it’s not something you feel the need to do. Is that maybe how you feel?”

“Th-that’s a regular thing?” Kageyama’s eyes widened. “Other people feel like that?”

Just glad they were finally on the same page, Tadashi nodded emphatically. “Millions of people all over the world feel that way. There are different types of asexuality, but it’s completely natural and totally okay. Knowing that sort of thing about yourself can really be a relief.” He harrumphed. “I should know.”

At Kageyama’s questioning look, Tadashi realized he was going to tell this guy he had just barely started to understand something that no one but Tsukishima knew. Not even his parents were privy to this fact. But it seemed like the right thing to do, so with a huff, he said, “I thought I was messed up in the head when I started noticing boys and girls both. But when I thought about it, I only care about who the person is, not what their gender or sexuality is. So I identify as pansexual. I am romantically and physically attracted to people of any gender or sexuality.”

“Oh,” was all Kageyama said as he blinked at Tadashi.

Tadashi’s face colored until his freckles were drowned out by reddened cheeks. “Please don’t tell anyone. I’m not ready for everybody to know just yet.”

“Okay.” Kageyama turned his attention to the busy street. “So, asexuals can still want to kiss people still, right?”

Relieved the attention was no longer focused on him, Tadashi replied quickly, “Oh, yeah. There are different levels of it. Is that how you feel?”

“I — I think so.” Kageyama rose from the bench. “Should be bring your mother’s curry to her while it’s still warm? It’s best when it’s warm.”

Tadashi chuckled. “Yeah, probably.” With that, he led Kageyama to his family’s shop and delivered the curry carton to his very grateful mother. Kageyama was mostly silent through their visit, only responding when required by politeness. Tadashi wasn’t surprised; Kageyama’s thoughts were likely elsewhere at the moment.

It was nearly three before they returned to Tadashi’s house. They were just kicking off their shoes at the door when Tadashi’s phone broke their companionable silence with a text alert.

← What are you doing today?

Though he had a pretty good idea how his best friend would react to the answer, Tadashi keyed in a reply.

→ I'm actually hanging out with Kageyama.

← On purpose? Or does Setterzilla have an un-evil twin I don't know about?

→ He's a nice guy when you get to know him. You should try it sometime.

← Yeah...no. Have fun with that, though. Just wanted to let you know I have a documentary about fish on the DVR. You liked the last one we watched. Come over whenever if you want to watch it.

→ Sounds great. Thanks, Tsukki!

With a chuckle, Tadashi clicked his phone off and said, "This is going to be so fun."

Kageyama didn't look so sure. "I am probably not very good."

"Doesn't matter. I'm not either." Tadashi patted Kageyama's arm. "Who cares, as long as we're having fun."

They piled into Tadashi's room and finished hooking up what they needed for their musical afternoon. His old PlayStation microphone was wired into the keyboard, and his pile of cheesy movie soundtrack songbooks sat on the floor next to them. "Anything you have in mind?"

Tadashi watched Kageyama sift through the pile, but the first book he paused over was punctuated by a mutual snort over the cover image. “Oh no, not that one.”

“Isn’t this movie old?” Kageyama mumbled as he thumbed through probably the most embarrassing part of Tadashi’s music book collection.

“Um, yeah. It’s also a terrible movie. I borrowed a bootleg copy from Ennoshita-san once, and I wanted to rip my eyes out.” Tadashi smiled wryly before stroking the glossy, well-worn cover. “But the music is so pretty. At least this way, the songs can be about anything or anyone I want and not some whiny angel.”

Kageyama didn’t seem to be listening, though. Instead, he quirked a brow and growled, “These songs are all in English. You said you were bad at English.”

Tadashi shrank at Kageyama’s accusatory tone, remembering very well refusing to help him and Hinata with English their first year. “I actually, er, translated the lyrics into Japanese to help me get better at English after I nearly failed my own exam in second year. I go through and translate the words to a lot of these in my spare time to get used to it. I’m kind of good at it now. It’s like how you take those weird noises Hinata makes and turn them into information actual people can understand.”

Ignoring Kageyama’s puzzled expression, Tadashi opened the book to one of the simpler songs and said, “Here, even I can play this one. It should be a good warm-up.”

Kageyama nodded curtly and turned his attention to the page. Tadashi had seen some of Kageyama’s various levels of concentration, but the one that had never failed to impress him was the ability to memorize something almost instantly. Hand signals, phone numbers, game scores, court formations — they all laid out for Kageyama like a book.

However, Tadashi’s thoughts went blank when the familiar strains of a song he’d played a hundred times trickled out of the keyboard. The sound was nothing like his own halting fumbles; it was rich and alive.

And he completely missed his cue for the words.

When Kageyama stopped and glanced over his shoulder questioningly, Tadashi’s cheeks burned. “All warmed up?” he managed, hoping Kageyama would believe this little ruse.

“More or less.” Kageyama flexed his fingers. “You’re right. This song is easy.”

“G-good.” Loudly clearing his throat, Tadashi pretended to read over the words before saying, “Try again?”

Kageyama agreed and counted under his breath before starting. If the first pass through the song hadn’t ensnared Tadashi, the second time around certainly would have done. The notes were clearer and the dynamics sharper.

Nearly missing his entrance again, Tadashi chimed in with the lyrics in his reedy singing voice. He knew he wasn’t especially good, but he could hit the right notes without too much ear-splitting falsetto.

When the song finished, Tadashi couldn’t speak. There was always something magical about music that made anyone who could master it seem like a god. Yet Kageyama had been able to play through one of the saddest songs ever written without flinching.

Or not.

The first thing Tadashi noticed was the slight tremble of usually deft fingers, and then when he looked down, there was a single tear track on Kageyama’s cheek. “They both died?”

Tadashi’s brows knit in confusion. “What?”

“In the movie,” Kageyama explained, his voice strangely tight. “The main characters died?”

In his nearly eighteen years of life, the mere thought of explaining the shitty plot to City of Angels to Kageyama Tobio had never crossed Tadashi’s mind, but that was what he did just then. Kageyama, to his credit, listened with his undivided attention until Tadashi mentioned the bike crashing into the log truck. At this, Kageyama visibly flinched.

“I told you it was a terrible movie,” Tadashi added quickly. “You wanna play a different song, then?”

Kageyama sighed. “Can we play this one again later, though? I have a couple of ideas to add to it.”

Tadashi smiled. “Of course. It is an Easy Piano book. There are a lot of notes and chords changed to make it simpler to play.”

The next song wasn’t much kinder, but at least Kageyama managed to incorporate more of the original melody despite never having heard it before. This song was easier for Tadashi to sing, so he was getting into it to the point where he was sad the song ended.

“Wow, you really are good,” he remarked as he stared at Kageyama’s hands. “I thought you said you hadn’t played in years.”

“I . . .” Kageyama blushed. “It’s hard to forget something you did for seven years.” At this, he looked pointedly at Tadashi. “Try breathing from your stomach when you sing. It will give your voice more strength.”

Scratching the back of his neck, Tadashi bit his lip. “Sorry my singing is so bad. I don’t usually do it when other people are in the house.”

“Your voice is fine, Yamaguchi-san.” Kageyama pored over the next song and added, “There are always things to adjust.”

“Do you sing?”

Kageyama started at the question. “I, um, took voice lessons because my mother wanted to balance out volleyball with other things.” His head drooped. “I quit a year in because the teacher talked too fast and I didn’t understand what she was saying.”

“That’s terrible,” Tadashi agreed. “But you shouldn’t stop something you enjoy just because of one person. Do you want to sing the first song we did, and I’ll play?”

Tadashi couldn’t help but grin as Kageyama’s eyes lit up. After flipping to the right page in the book, he did a few warm-up folk songs to get his fingers moving before counting down to the start of the song.

His notes were not as clean as Kageyama’s by a long shot, but he could discern the melody well enough from his efforts. However, his mistakes multiplied exponentially when Kageyama began to sing.

Kageyama’s voice was beautiful. Deep, resonant, and on pitch. A song he had heard Tadashi sing only once (and badly) flowed from him; Tadashi had to fight to keep his attention on the sheet music and not on the warmth in his usually chilly setter’s voice.

He craned his neck to look up at Kageyama once the song ended shakily but rather well. “Is there anything that you’re not good at?” With a snort, he added, “Besides schoolwork and how people work, I guess.”

“You shouldn’t say such things, Yamaguchi-san,” Kageyama scolded before looking away. “I wish people trusted me the way they do you.”

“And I wish the thought of letting all of you down didn’t terrify me,” Tadashi blurted in reply. His hands flew to his mouth. “I wasn’t supposed to say that.”

“Why?”

Tadashi blinked. “Um, I’m supposed to be strong. Like Dai-san and Enno-san. They were great captains, but now they’re gone and I have to figure out how to do what they did without being smart or strong.”

Kageyama squinted and pursed his lips, and the intensity of his eyes on Tadashi was startling. “Do you think you are neither of those things?”

“Of course not.” Tadashi huffed and flopped down on the edge of his bed. “Sure, I’m taller now and I’m a fairly good server, but I can’t make game-saving receives or steer the wilder players in the right direction. I’m just a nobody, Kageyama.”

His knees curling into his chest, Tadashi lamented his reflex to voice these lingering doubts that have brewed in his head since last July when he was asked to consider the position. Most of the third years had stuck around after Inter-highs to help the team cope with Kageyama’s injury, so Tadashi hadn’t been required to take the reins until their season ended fast and ugly in the Spring Highs.

Shouting wasn’t on the menu of things Tadashi was expecting.

“No!” When Tadashi’s head jerked up, he saw Kageyama with fists clenched until they were bone white, and a glare on his face that could frighten a scarecrow off its pole. “You would not have been chosen if you didn’t deserve it, so to say you don’t insults Ennoshita-san and Ukai-san and Takeda-sensei and everyone else who wasn’t chosen!”

Tadashi’s jaw dropped open as he regarded Kageyama’s bloodless hands and heaving chest, anger still radiating from him like a dark cloud. He had seen Kageyama this irritated with Hinata before, and even Tsukishima to a degree, but never turned in his direction.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Tadashi said softly before slumping backwards on his bed. “Why did they pick me? Why did I accept? I want to help the team and be good enough to play, but I don’t want to waste another Inter-High tournament. After everything that’s happened, you deserve better than that, Kageyama.”

This stopped Kageyama’s simmering in its tracks. “Why would you think about me? Don’t you want to win for yourself?”

The question caught Tadashi off guard. Hiking himself to his elbows, he said, “Of course I do, but why wouldn’t I think about you?” He scratched his head. “All you’ve done since you were little is work to be a better volleyball player, and last year, we had a strong team that had what it took to win. Your hard work was going to pay off, and we were finally going to beat Shiratorizawa and go to nationals. But we were all lost without you.”

Tadashi had broken the one rule they’d set regarding the previous year’s failures, but the damage was done. A blank mask slipped over Kageyama’s features, and without another word, he left the room and Tadashi behind, who was desperately wondering how to fix this.


	4. Chapter 4

Tadashi figured Kageyama would head straight for the gym, and he was right. He could hear the squeak of sneakers and the pounding of balls on the floorboards through the door when he arrived. It was only a half hour after Kageyama had quietly left Tadashi’s house, but it had taken that long for Tadashi to process their argument and go look for him.

Quietly, he pried the door open and poked his head inside. To his lack of surprise, Tadashi found Kageyama delivering serve after serve, with every one of them accompanied by a snarl. Kageyama’s face was red and sweating, and he was panting from the effort. It made Tadashi wonder how many times he had managed to empty the hopper since he had arrived.

There were no bottles, which made it clear to Tadashi that this was not practice; it was therapy. He doubted Kageyama missed his entrance, but if he did know Tadashi was there, he chose to ignore his presence. Ball after ball was pummeled to the other side of the court with little care for accuracy.

“Kageyama, stop,” Tadashi said past the lump in his throat. “Please.”

Kageyama’s shoulders tensed, but he did not turn around. Instead, he hammered out two more serves before dragging the ball cart across the court to fill it back up again.

Tadashi knew this would be his first real test as the captain. Kageyama had only recently recovered from a devastating injury and had no business working him body this hard after being out of condition for so long. While he had no idea where Kageyama was mentally because of something stupid that Tadashi had said, he was going to fix it.

“That’s enough.” With a deep breath, Tadashi stalked over to where Kageyama’s shaking hands were trying to grasp a volleyball and swatted it out of his hands. “You should go home for the day if this is all you’re going to do.”

Kageyama leaned towards Tadashi and spat, “You’re either the captain or you’re not. Don’t pretend you can tell me what to do until you figure out which one you are.” With that, Kageyama did an about face and jerked the ball hopper behind him.

Tadashi hadn’t been wrong; Kageyama was most certainly upset by something he had said. And he was going to fix it. Once again, he followed Kageyama across the court, and when he was near, he pushed Kageyama backwards until his wrists were stapled to the wall behind him.

“I meant what I said,” Tadashi hissed. “We lost the minute you got hurt. It sucks, but it happens and isn’t anybody’s fault. But if you keep on ignoring your physical therapy regimen and work yourself to death like this, that _will_ be on you. I might not be able to kick your ass for it, but it would be less than you deserve for being so _selfish_.”

By this point, Tadashi’s chest was pushed up against Kageyama’s, and both of them were desperately gasping from the same patch of air. Everywhere they were touching felt like pins and needles on Tadashi’s skin, but he shoved that aside and refused to break his gaze away from Kageyama’s wide eyes.

“Now do your cool-down stretches, if you even bothered warming up properly, and either come back to my house or go home. End of discussion.” Slowly, Tadashi let Kageyama’s wrists slide from his grasp and down the wall before backing away.

“Ossu,” Kageyama gasped, leaning against the wall in shock as Tadashi crossed his arms and waited to be obeyed. Without a word, Kageyama did his warm-down stretching and picked up his bag at the door. “Do you want me to clean up?”

Tadashi shook his head. “Go home. Next time you want to practice, let me know.” When Kageyama’s brows shot up, Tadashi grated his teeth and said, “Until you learn to pace yourself, you’re banned from practicing in the gym unsupervised until I decide otherwise.”

Kageyama’s head hung low as he dragged his bag towards the door. “Yes, captain.”

Clearing his throat, Tadashi held out his hand. “Your key. Give it to me.”

If it were possible for Kageyama to shrink, he would have done right then as he fished his key out of his bag and dropped it into Tadashi’s grasp. He left the gym the same way, and when he was completely gone, Tadashi exhaled heavily and dropped to the floor.

After a few minutes of letting his rattled nerves settle back down to a semblance of normalcy, Tadashi woodenly cleaned up the gym and left. Outside, he locked up and texted Tsukishima

→ Can I come over?

← Did Kageyama-sama ruin your date?

→ I’ll tell you about it later. I could really use a fish documentary right about now.

← Suit yourself.

 

Tsukishima opened the door without a greeting, and Tadashi didn’t bother waiting for one. He shucked off his shoes and made a beeline for the couch. Tsukishima followed him into the room with a soft drink in one hand and the remote in the other.

Tadashi took the remote and cued the documentary, though he doubted he would be able to concentrate enough to remember any of it. He took a grateful swig of the cola and let the anxious little bubbles work away his stress.

It wasn’t until they were twenty minutes in that Tadashi finally spoke. “Did you know Kageyama plays the piano and sings?”

“Wouldn’t care if I did,” Tsukishima drawled as he sipped his own drink. “He seems the type. What of it?”

Burying his face into a throw pillow, Tadashi grumbled, “We were having fun, and then I dumped my insecurities all over him. He got mad, then he got upset, and then he left.”

When Tsukishima shook his head, Tadashi haltingly related his conversation with Kageyama up through taking his keys away. After the oddly tiring spiel, Tadashi asked, “So, what do I do, Tsukki?”

“He was right to shout at you, Yamaguchi.” Tadashi started at this and stared at Tsukishima for a good explanation, who complied. “It is insulting for you to act like you’re not worthy of the captaincy. You were chosen over both of the Freak Duo and me for a reason, and if you weren’t good enough, they could’ve picked a second year.

“If you’re a bad captain, then what are we?”

Tadashi groaned and crossed his legs on the couch. “Actually agreeing with each other. I don’t even know how to process that.”

“Neither do I,” Tsukishima said with a sneer. “Agreeing with Kageyama-sama is on my list of goals to never accomplish.”

“Did I do the wrong thing?” Tadashi glanced sideways at Tsukishima, not realizing until that moment how much he really needed to know he had not ruined his budding partnership with Kageyama.

But Tsukishima shook his head. “No, you were right to do what you did, even if you shouldn’t have said what you did about being captain. Without him, we won’t make it past the second round of Inter-Highs and we both know that. I’m sure Takeda-sensei and Ukai-san know that. Even if he wants to work himself to death like a moron, it doesn’t mean you should let him.”

As Tadashi considered this, he felt more and more confident about his decision to strip Kageyama of unsupervised practice privileges. “Thanks, Tsukki.”

“Shut up and watch the fish,” Tsukishima grumbled, but there was no malice in his tone as they both eased back with their sodas and absorbed more marine trivia than they would ever need.

It was past eight when Tadashi left Tsukishima’s house, full of food Tsukishima’s mother insisted he stay for. Their farewells were, as usual, short to the point of nonexistence, but Tadashi still gave his best friend a little wave as he made his way down the street.

The ten minute walk gave Tadashi a lot more time to think than he would have preferred. While he had made peace with the circumstances of his argument with Kageyama, he was by no means comfortable with the potential damage it could do to their future partnership.

Would Kageyama trust him after this? Tadashi couldn’t help the dull ache in his stomach at the thought of his setter and co-captain thinking less of him after the day’s events. But it was done, and all there was left to do was react, which he decided to start right at that moment as he texted Kageyama.

→ Take care of yourself. Let me know if you want to practice tomorrow.

Though he did not rightly expect a response, one came a couple of minutes later.

← Is ten and six again okay?

Tadashi grinned at his phone as he heaved a sigh of relief.

→ Yeah. That would be great.

Though he doubted Kageyama would ever take him up on it, he added:

→ And the invite is still open to hang out at my place for the afternoon.

← Okay.

Tadashi pumped his fist so hard he dropped his phone. Maybe they would be all right, after all.

 

His practice with Kageyama the next day was surprisingly not stressful. Kageyama stretched the way he was supposed to, stopped and rested when Tadashi demanded it, and did his cool-downs with minimal complaint.

After finishing up around noon, Tadashi gave Kageyama a hopeful smile. “Are you up for lunch at Yuki-san’s?”

Kageyama looked startled. “Is that okay?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Tadashi mused, scratching his head. “I invited you. I wouldn’t have if it wasn’t.”

Shaking his head, Kageyama said, “Yuki-san was very kind. It feels wrong not to pay.”

“Oh.” Tadashi had never thought about it, but he could understand Kageyama’s qualms. “Well, I’ve got a little pocket money. We could get some chicken from Ronso’s and eat in the park. I haven’t done that forever.”

A hint of a smile pulled at Kageyama’s lips. “Okay.”

They walked to the nearby restaurant, and Kageyama let Tadashi order for both of them. Once they made it to the park close to Tadashi’s house, he handed the bag to Kageyama. “Go ahead,” he urged. “You first.”

“What are these?” Kageyama asked as he inspected one of the fried treats from the cartoon chicken carrier.

Tadashi looked at Kageyama in surprise. “You’ve never had these before?”

Kageyama colored. “My mother doesn’t like fast food.”

“Are you going to get in trouble for eating this?” Tadashi worried his bottom lip. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask about that.”

“Why would you?” Kageyama rubbed his chin before biting into the nugget. “Fried cheese?”

Grinning, Tadashi said, “Yes! The other two are chicken, and a big order of fries to share.”

Tadashi couldn't help the fluttering in his belly as he watched Kageyama eat with nothing less than pure joy. Half a dozen training camps had shown Kageyama's love affair with food, but nothing like the childlike glee of inhaling an entire serving of chicken tenders. Tadashi had barely touched his half of the fried cheese balls and fries by the time Kageyama had eaten all of his.

He lazily leaned back on the park bench and sipped his soda while Tadashi slowly plowed his way through his own lunch. By the time he finished, Kageyama was asleep and snoring softly next to him. There was a tiny trickle of drool tracking down his chin, and Tadashi had to cover his mouth with his hand to keep from laughing out loud.

With a contented sigh, Tadashi leaned into Kageyama's shoulder and drifted off himself.

When he woke up, Tadashi was surprised to see his hand entwined with Kageyama's and a very much alert Kageyama staring intently at the very same sight. "Oh," he said lamely. "I don't know how that happened."

Kageyama turned beet red before jerking his hand away and stuffing it under his arm. "'S okay," he muttered while grabbing their bag of garbage and darting off to the nearest receptacle. He didn't sit when he returned, and Tadashi felt embarrassment stick in the back of his throat as he croaked, "You wanna head out or stay here for a bit?"

"Go," Kageyama said before stalking off towards the park exit. Tadashi nearly had to run to catch up.

He was almost winded by the time he was directly behind Kageyama. "Hey," he said with more strength than he thought he could, "slow down."

Stopping mid-stride, Kageyama wheeled around just in time to smash face-to-face into Tadashi. They both reeled back with an 'oof,' and Kageyama rubbed his reddening nose.

"What's wrong with you?" Tadashi asked as he felt around to make sure his nose wasn't bleeding. "Why are you being so weird?"

Sputtering, Kageyama barked, "Why did you do that?"

"Do what?" Tadashi scowled. "Hold your hand in my sleep? I don't know. I was asleep. How do you know it wasn't you?"

At this, Kageyama looked away sharply, his shoulders tense enough to snap. Tadashi crossed his arms and shook his head. “Why does it bother you that much? There’s nothing wrong with it. Kids do it all the time.”

“You don’t understand!” Kageyama hugged his arms around his torso and hung his head. “You don’t understand.”

Tadashi’s mouth slanted into a half-frown. “No, I don’t. How about you tell me what I don’t understand, because I’m lost here.”

“I . . . I can’t.” Kageyama tugged brutally on his hair, enough to make Tadashi wince just watching. “I can’t.”

Shrilly whining through his teeth, Tadashi threw up his arms. “When am I going to figure you out, Kageyama?” He stormed over to Kageyama and forcibly turned him around to look him in the eye. “If you don’t want to tell me, fine, but I’m doing my best to be your friend. You are not making it easy with all this weirdness.”

Tadashi barely remembered ever having spoken so forcefully before. The last time he could recall was scolding Tsukishima for not caring enough, in the heat of the moment and completely off the cuff. Things he couldn’t have rehearsed and carried through with in a million years. And Kageyama was desperately close to pushing Tadashi to physically shake some sense into his stupid bowl cut head.

Then Kageyama kissed him, and everything went straight to hell.

Wide-eyed, Tadashi gaped at Kageyama, who reeled backwards with a look of abject horror. All he could do was blink and watch Kageyama’s face go from pink to red to puce in about ten seconds before running off in the opposite direction.

“Now this is just getting ridiculous,” Tadashi thought to himself as he quickly and bemusedly jogged after the boy who had stolen his first kiss.


	5. Chapter 5

If Tadashi had learned one thing in the past two years, it was that nobody ran farther and faster on the team than Kageyama except for Hinata. Even when he moved from a jog to a sprint, there was no catching the fleeing Kageyama, which left Tadashi frustrated, confused, and a little bit nauseous from eating too much beforehand.

Kageyama had kissed him. Not one of those things he could brush off as "I tripped and fell on your face" — there was no mistake. He barely understood what had happened, but Tadashi didn't have a chance of understanding Kageyama's point of view when he couldn't figure out what went on behind those electric blue eyes on a good day.

Tadashi reached into his pocket for his phone, only to find that his hands were shaking. He keyed a text message to Kageyama through the wobbling, hoping for at least an explanation.  _Can we talk?_  Just a simple gesture, which he hoped would be enough to get an explanation and a decent chance of fixing this before the school year started and the entire team noticed the awkward split between the captains. Not that he expected an answer anytime soon, but they would have to talk about this at some point. Unless Kageyama quit the team (which Tadashi didn't think he would do for any reason), they would see a lot of each other — far too often to leave this this awkward.

What he really needed at the moment was someone to talk to who actually had Kageyama figured out. He also had the feeling that this list was going to be woefully short because Kageyama barely spoke to anyone outside of volleyball. In fact, there was only one name he could produce with his addled mind. His trembling fingers flipped through his contact list until he found the one he wanted. He called Hinata.

"Hello?" came Hinata's overly-bright voice.

"H-Hinata?" Tadashi's voice trembled as much as the rest of him. "Are you busy?"

"I was about to do some receive practice in the back yard. Did you need help with something?"

Tadashi nodded before remembering he was on the phone. After smacking himself in the forehead, he said, "I need to ask you about something, and I'd rather not do it over the phone." He was surprised that he got that many words out without puking or biting his own tongue. "Can I come over?"

"Of course!" Tadashi could not miss the excitement in Hinata's voice. He only wished his first time hanging out with his team's brand new ace was under better circumstances. "When are you coming, so I can tell my mom?"

"I'm leaving now. The bus to your neighborhood leaves in fifteen minutes if I can get to the stop on time, so a half hour?"

They agreed on the time and hung up, and Tadashi sighed in relief that he no longer had to use words for at least that long. This would probably gain him nothing, but he had to try. If not for Kageyama's sake or his own, then for the team's.

Tadashi's bus arrived in the Yukigaoka neighborhood twenty five minutes later, and he followed the directions to Hinata's house texted to him during the ride. The area didn't look much different than the street Tadashi lived in, save for the absence of a sprinkling of very nice houses. He easily spotted the Hinata home from the inflatable kiddie pool out front with two volleyballs floating inside.

Hinata was already out front, trying to keep a miniature version of himself in a sundress from darting into the street. When the little girl, who he vaguely recalled was named Natsu, tried running past him. Tadashi knelt in front of her and held out an arm to impede her progress. "Hello!" he said cheerfully. "I don't suppose you could help me find Shouyou."

Natsu turned around and bellowed in a disturbingly loud voice, "Nii-chan, Volleyball-chan is looking for you."

Hinata came over and shooed Natsu back into the house. "Sorry. She's been to a few matches and knows most of the guys on the team, just not their names. So now she just calls you all Volleyball-chan. Except Kageyama; he's Grumpy nii-chan."

Tadashi chuckled at the mental image of this spark plug of a girl meeting surly Kageyama. "She's cute." He looked around for any eavesdroppers before adding under his breath, "Is there anywhere we can talk without any little ears around?"

Nodding, Hinata led him to the backyard, where a rickety old tree house rested in the branches of a giant old tree. The boards nailed to the trunk looked older than Hinata, and Tadashi immediately decided that he had no desire to climb them. Incognizant of the potential danger, Hinata clambered to the top of the makeshift ladder andand beckoned, "Come on!"

After a quick prayer to the gods to spare his life from this foolishness, Tadashi followed. He was surprised at the sturdiness of the structure once he was safely inside. The walls were covered with volleyball paraphernalia, including copies of the various posters Yachi had made for the club over the past two years. "This is really cool," he said honestly.

"Natsu isn't allowed up here until she's twelve, and her legs are too short to climb the ladder anyway." Hinata pushed a fluffy patio cushion towards Tadashi before plopping down on one of his own. "So, where's the fire?"

Tadashi settled onto his cushion and rested his forehead in his palms. "Kageyama kissed me and I don't know what to do," he blurted.

When Hinata didn't reply, Tadashi looked up to see his usually vocal teammate slack-jawed and very silent. It wasn't that Hinata being confused was particularly rare, but it was disconcerting when he really needed someone to say something wise. The fact that he had enlisted Hinata for advice told Tadashi how in trouble he really was. "I'm sorry. You probably don't want to hear about this. I'll just, um, go now."

As soon as Tadashi began to rise from his seat, Hinata's hand darted out and stopped him. "He kissed you? Really? On the  _mouth_?"

"Yes?" Tadashi said, not sure where he had been unclear. "Has he ever been super weird around you? I'm just worried I did something to upset him without knowing."

At Hinata's questioning look, Tadashi related an abbreviated account of the past couple of days. He left out the discussion they'd had about sexuality because it wasn't his secret to tell, but he needed answers to the Kageyama puzzle before his head exploded.

After Tadashi ended with the strangeness in the park, Hinata was visibly reeling in his perch. "Wow," he said vacantly.

"Yeah," Tadashi agreed. "What do I even do?"

“Pray,” Hinata said, and Tadashi wasn’t sure if it was a joke.

Shaking his head, Tadashi decided to simply ask directly. “Do you think he likes me?”

Hinata scratched his head. “Well, he does get really moody about things that matter to him. You say he yelled at you?”

“Yeah . . .” Tadashi was almost afraid of where this was going. He had entertained the notion that Kageyama had some type of feelings for him the entire bus ride, but that he could write off as his overactive imagination. Receiving confirmation from someone as oblivious as Hinata was an entirely different matter. “Because I said I was nervous about being captain and that I was afraid I’d fail.”

The look Hinata gave him made blood roar in Tadashi’s ears, loud enough that he could barely register the words that came after. “You have to ask him to make sure, but I think you know.”

Kageyama liked him. Kageyama kissed him. On the mouth. With his mouth. Their mouths touched in an incredibly intimate way and Kageyama initiated that contact purposely. “Oh, crap,” Tadashi wheezed. “Kageyama likes me.”

Hinata’s mouth slanted in a wry smile. “Congratulations?”

“Shut up,” Tadashi sighed as he hid his face in his hands.

It was all too much for Tadashi to handle. No one had ever confessed to him before, but he expected something different than this. He couldn’t he disliked the idea of being liked in that way, but the awkwardness warded away any good feelings he thought he could have about it.

Hinata grinned and clapped him on the shoulder. “You should definitely stay for dinner.”

The thought of food made Tadashi want to throw up from the knots writhing in his stomach, but he weakly nodded in agreement. The bus ride would probably have done him in anyway.

Tadashi remembered that he had promised Kageyama that they could practice after six and that Kageyama no longer had a key. Quickly, he texted Yachi and asked her if she could meet Kageyama at the gym. She agreed without question, for which he was grateful, and he sent a second message to Kageyama, informing him of the change of plans.

No reply.

It was with an unexpected heaviness that Tadashi followed Hinata out of the tree and into the house, where he greeted Hinata’s mother and spent the rest of the afternoon lying face-down on Hinata’s bed. After a few hours of silence, the thought of food no longer made him nauseous and he even enjoyed the smell of grilling fish wafting through the air.

Dinner in the Hinata house was a noisy affair, but Tadashi spent most of the meal only speaking when spoken to and, later, leaving as early as politely possible. An invitation was issued for him to stay the night, but he declined with a smile and a promise of ‘maybe next time.’

Hinata walked Tadashi to the bus stop and was uncharacteristically quiet until they arrived. Finally, he said, “Yamaguchi, I know you think it’s weird that Kageyama likes you, but don’t think of it as Kageyama being crazy. When you remember that he’s a big dumb baby about a lot of things, it kind of makes it easier to deal with him.”

“Thanks, Hinata.” He gave Hinata a warm squeeze on the shoulder. “We should really hang out again under better circumstances.”

A blinding smile graced Hinata’s face. “Yes!”

Tadashi waved as his bus departed, feeling like the night would be a good one to turn in early. His mother would have already returned home and headed off to Yuki-san’s for dinner. He texted her to verify that he was on his way home and when he arrived safely.

Well, the early bedtime worked out okay. Sleep, however, was another matter entirely.

As Tadashi became uncomfortably familiar with the ceiling in his room, he couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss and Kageyama. He wasn’t even certain why he was so spooked by it. It was not because Kageyama was a guy; those types of things had never mattered to Tadashi.

And it definitely explained why Kageyama had lost his mind over the hand-holding thing. Maybe he had not been any more ready for what had happened than Tadashi was. Maybe he was also staring at his ceiling in a sleepless malaise. Maybe his eyes were burning with dryness, too, because every time he closed them, the event would replay itself on the back of his eyelids. And Kageyama was definitely the type to relive things until he broke; that much Tadashi knew for sure.

His alarm clock said it was a bit after midnight. It was too late to text Yachi and find out how practice had gone, but he had a feeling Kageyama would still be up. With that, Tadashi fumbled in the dark for his phone and sent a simple message:

→ Hey.

Yet again, there was no answer. Tadashi gulped but continued.

→ I know things got weird today, but I want you to know that it’s okay. We just need to talk about it.

→ I’m only now getting to really know you, and I don’t want to ruin that by us ignoring each other.

→ If you want, we can meet at the gym at the same time, and we can practice or we can talk. But please don’t ignore me. I didn’t do anything wrong, and neither did you.

After ten minutes, Tadashi was overwhelmed by the lack of response. He had never asked for any of this, but Kageyama was his friend and he was not going to let that die for no good reason. Especially not when they would have to work together a lot over the next year.

And there was also the matter of how Tadashi felt about the kiss and about Kageyama’s potential feelings. The idea of actually being wanted in that way was not unappealing. No one had ever confessed to him or kissed him or even wanted to hold hands with him. But probably the weirdest person Tadashi knew had turned scarlet because they were holding hands and had kissed him. He didn’t even want to dwell on the fact that Kageyama was actually quite attractive when he wasn’t scowling.

Tadashi could feel his cheeks burn at that thought. Yeah, Kageyama was good-looking, and he would be lying if he said it was the first time he’d noticed this. The first time he had seen Kageyama in the park, practicing with Hinata because they’d been kicked out of the gym by Daichi, Tadashi had noticed Kageyama. He had noticed Kageyama to the point where he had jumped on the bandwagon with Tsukishima to poke fun at the freak duo because it gave him something else to think about than their newest setter having grossly long eyelashes.

Oh, no.

Gripping his teddy bear for dear life, Tadashi sighed to himself and said, "I'm in trouble, Kuma-chan. I think I like Kageyama."

The bear's lone glassy eye stared blankly at Tadashi, who vainly hoped his childhood friend could give his some words of wisdom. He was almost afraid to ask Tsukishima what to do; somehow, he had a feeling Tsukki's usual 'shut up, Yamaguchi' wouldn't roll off the way it normally did.

Tired and frustrated, Tadashi buried his face in his pillow and waited until his active mind decided to power down on its own. It was well past three before his wish came true, and eight o'clock came way too soon.

When Tadashi awoke, there was one lone text message he must have been too out of it to hear. He gulped when he saw it was from Kageyama.

← I'll be there.

As much as Tadashi didn't look forward to leaving the house after so little sleep, he wanted to make this right. Whatever that might be. If Kageyama would rather forget the whole thing, Tadashi could live with that. If Kageyama wanted to discuss his feelings, Tadashi was okay with that, too.

And if Kageyama wanted to kiss him again, well . . . Tadashi could  _definitely_  live with that. His stomach felt like it was full of rocks just thinking about it.

At quarter to ten, Tadashi let himself into the gym and lay on the floor, repeatedly setting a volleyball over his head while trying to keep from hitting himself in the face. Which he nearly did at the sound of the doors creaking open ten minutes later. Catching the ball before it broke his nose, he sat up and gave Kageyama the brightest smile his tired body could muster. "Hi," he crooned, his voice cloyingly chipper to his own ears.

“Good morning, Yamaguchi-san,” Kageyama said stiffly, his shoulders visibly tense even through his sweatshirt.

Tadashi shook his head, a little disappointed in Kageyama’s attitude. “You don’t have to call me Yamaguchi-san. I’m only six weeks older than you, and I really thought we were friendly enough to drop the formalities.”

Kageyama looked away sharply during Tadashi’s nervous babble. Everything about him was clenched tight enough to shatter, and Tadashi hated it. Just the day before, Kageyama was relaxed enough to enjoy a meal in the park with him, and the day before that to reveal something of himself that he hadn’t told anyone. Tadashi almost didn’t care anymore about how many hours he had spent tossing and turning everything around in his head the night before; none of that mattered against seeing Kageyama shrinking before him like a wounded animal.

“I’m sorry, Kageyama.” Tadashi’s voice was dry and scratchy. “I’m sorry you feel this way. I hate that you feel so uncomfortable.” He sighed and rested his forehead on his knees. “Please tell me what to do.”

He had thought he was prepared for this, but Tadashi realized that he was out of control the moment Kageyama walked into the gym. The rift between them was humid and heavy, and it made Tadashi want to sink into the floor. The idea of being the source of someone else’s distress tasted like rotten fish in his mouth.

“I don’t know,” Kageyama hissed, his voice wobbling as much as Tadashi’s. “What am I supposed to do?”

With more effort that it should have taken, Tadashi forced himself to look up at Kageyama. Tears threatened on the other boy’s face, and the sight made Tadashi want to cry, as well. “What do you _want_ to do?”

Kageyama turned away and hugged his arms tight to his chest. “I — I can’t do that again.”

Can’t do — oh. _Oh_. If Tadashi was right about this (and he was sure he was), one thing could potentially put an end to this painful awkwardness. Pushing to his feet, he strode purposefully towards Kageyama, spun him around, raked his fingers through Kageyama’s silky hair and pressed their mouths together.

Kageyama’s eyes shot wide open, but he didn’t pull away. Instead, he wound his arms around Tadashi’s middle and tugged them even closer together. The feel of hands on his body was unexpectedly pleasurably, and Tadashi reflexively moaned into Kageyama’s mouth.

Their lips moved and teased until Tadashi gave into the urge to take Kageyama’s bottom lip between his teeth and suck. When he released, Kageyama sprang back and threw a hand over his already bruising pout.

Tadashi had certainly surprised himself as much as he had Kageyama. Until that moment, all he could process was that his body was warm all over and his heart was beating like a wadaiko drum and he never wanted to stop. He could still hear his blood pound in his ears, and his hands shook as they slid from Kageyama’s hair, but something in the moment had definitely broken.

“I’m sorry,” Tadashi panted best. “I shouldn’t pressure you when I know —”

Whatever he had meant to say was drowned out as Kageyama roughly pushed him back against the padded gym wall and crushed his entire body against Tadashi’s for another intense kiss.

Tadashi couldn’t think; he couldn’t _breathe_. All he could smell or taste or sense was Kageyama’s smoldering presence, and it was intoxicating. Every dumb cliché about kissing that Tadashi had ever written off roared with laughter at his expense. It was good, and much better than anything he had imagined, even when their teeth clacked or their noses got in each other’s way.

When Kageyama pulled away, Tadashi closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall. He was gasping for air as his knees gave up the ghost and he slowly sank to the floor.

“Wow.” Tadashi shook his head. “Wow.” He lolled his head back and gaped at Kageyama. “Feel free to do that whenever you want.” The mere concept made his nerves sing in anticipation.

Just as Kageyama opened his mouth to attempt a response, the doors to the gym blew open and Yachi barreled into the gym.

“Sorry!” she cried. “I didn’t know if you were coming, and you didn’t text, so I —” She stopped short when she saw Kageyama standing over Tadashi.

With a yelp, Yachi rushed over and wedged herself between the two of them, arms splayed wide in a protective stance. “Please, don’t kill Tadashi! He has so much to live for!”

The frantic tone in her voice made Tadashi snort. If their disheveled state were misinterpreted, he could almost see how she could mistake their shortness of breath and ruddy faces for anger. He was about to correct her when he was interrupted by a sound he knew he had never heard yet would never forget.

It started with a low rumble, with toothy guffaws and even a chortle, but it was obvious and undeniable. Kageyama was laughing. It sounded dry and unpracticed at first, but slowly and surely, a smooth, deep cackle gushed out of him. Tadashi was shocked, albeit pleasantly so, when the cackle turned into a full-body belly laugh.

Tears dribbled out of Kageyama’s eyes as he doubled over, and Tadashi’s heart tripped over itself in response. After Kageyama dropped to the floor, shoulders shaking, Tadashi grinned and leaned into him with a sigh.

Frantically looking back and forth between them, Yachi tugged at her own hair and whined, “I don’t know what’s going on anymore!”

“It’s okay, Yacchan. Kageyama isn’t going to hurt me.”

Yachi gave him a dubious look, but Kageyama nodded in confirmation. “Okay, then.” She started backing away. “I think I’m going to go home and —” Her arm collided with the doorframe. “— rearrange my highlighter drawer.”

With that, Yachi fled like her backpack was on fire.

Tadashi gave Kageyama’s shoulder a playful punch and said, “You know, you’re cute when you do that.”

Kageyama blushed and almost ran to the supply room for the ball cart, and for the first time in a while, Tadashi felt like everything was going to be okay.


	6. Chapter 6

Their practices became a lot smoother and cooperative now that the few hours between sessions were spent eating too much and kissing in Tadashi's room all afternoon. Yuki-san saw them nearly every day, and she was pleased as punch to stow the two of them in the darkest corner of the restaurant.

On one such occasion, Tadashi couldn't help but laugh, and Kageyama didn't understand why. "She's happy for us, Kageyama," Tadashi had explained.

"But we didn't tell her."

"It's sort of obvious when we're making googly eyes at each other the whole time. Or when we walk in holding hands."

"Oh."

However, as the school year loomed closer, Tadashi knew they would have to make a decision. He wasn't too bothered about the team knowing about them and their budding relationship, but the rest of the school was a different matter. Tadashi knew that feelings towards men being together could be strained, to use a kind word. But with Kageyama being clueless about most everything that wasn't volleyball, it was hard to broach the subject without encouraging Kageyama to make a decision he was not prepared to live with.

With school starting back up in only two days, though, Tadashi couldn't afford to put it off anymore. Before their morning workout session, he pulled Kageyama into the club room and said, "We need to talk."

He felt a flash of guilt at the slight panic his words elicited, but it was a necessary evil. "I need to know how you want to go from here. I am all right with anything that makes you comfortable, but who am I allowed to tell?" At Kageyama's vacant look, Tadashi added, "Who do we want to know about us?"

"You mean, like . . . our moms?" Kageyama chewed on his bottom lips as his brows knotted. "Hinata, maybe."

Tadashi nodded. "Hinata probably already knows." He blushed. "I kind of, um, asked him for advice about you."

Kageyama raised a brow at this. "But Hinata's stupid. Surely you know this by now."

With a soft punch to Kageyama's arm, Tadashi shook his head. "He's your friend. Don't be mean." However, there was no edge to his voice or consternation in his words.

Smirking, Kageyama nudged back and said, "I don't hear a denial."

Tadashi hit Kageyama harder this time, enough to push him down onto one of the benches. In retaliation, Kageyama tugged Tadashi roughly into his lap, which elicited an embarrassing giggle and a squeak.

The kiss after was teasing and playful, and Tadashi almost forgot why he had asked Kageyama to talk to him in the first place. It was with heavy reluctance that Tadashi pulled his lips away, only to rest his forehead on Kageyama's shoulder. "You still didn't answer me. School starts in two days, so it's kind of important."

He heard Kageyama sigh. "I know there can be . . . problems." Tensing up beneath Tadashi, both his fists clenched. "But I'm not going to be afraid."

Tadashi tried not to laugh at his earnestness, but he couldn't stop the flood of well-being Kageyama's words filled him with. "Neither am I." He raised his head to peck Kageyama on the cheek. "I think we should tell the team first and see where it goes."

Kageyama nodded and wrapped his arms around Tadashi's waist. They were warm and strong, and he was sure he could live in this moment forever. Lips trailed down the slope of Tadashi's neck, and he felt like he was going to burst into flames as he groaned. "Tobio," he breathed into Kageyama's ear.

The mouth on his skin jerked away, and Kageyama looked up at Tadashi with wonder. He looked like he wanted to say something, and Tadashi had a good idea of what it was. He gave Kageyama a watery smile and said, "Go on."

"Tadashi."

The sound of his name on Kageyama's lips knocked the air out of Tadashi's lungs. He had thought about what it would sound like for Kageyama to say his name. Not the way his mother said it, or 'Tada-chan' from Yuki-san — the way his  _boyfriend_  said it.

Their gazes met, and Tadashi didn't even try to fight the oncoming rush of affection. Instead, he stroked the surprisingly soft skin of Kageyama's jaw and murmured once again, "Tobio."

Neither of them looked away as Tadashi swung his leg over so he was straddling Kageyama on the bench. Tadashi slipped his fingers over Kageyama's lips and traced the outline of a smile starting to bloom there. Over the past week, he could not fathom how he had thought Kageyama was bad at smiling. His smile was beautiful. Rare, but that just made it something to treasure.

Kageyama's unsteady hand came up to tug on the slim black band holding Tadashi's hair back into a ponytail and slid it off before carding his fingers through the waves. It was something he was wont to do, and Tadashi had to admit that the feeling of Kageyama's delicate touch along his scalp did things to him he couldn't say out loud without turning as red as a radish.

He couldn't help the groan that tore from his mouth as his head lolled back and his eyes fluttered closed. Lips were on the hammering pulse at his throat, and Tadashi thought he might die from it. The sound of his ragged breaths filled the locker room as Kageyama explored the sensitive flesh of his neck and shoulders.

Both of them nearly fell off the bench when the door slammed shut.

"Who was it?" Tadashi asked, trying not to be petulant that the mood was ruined.

Kageyama looked away and bit his lip. "It was Tsukishima," he said after a long hesitation.

"Oh, no." Tadashi launched to his feet and ran out the door and after his best friend. The best friend he hadn't told about his new relationship with Kageyama. As far as Tsukishima knew, Tadashi and Kageyama were just practicing together, not slavering all over each other.

Tadashi didn't catch up with Tsukishima until they were at the school gateposts. "Tsukki! Tsukki, please!"

Tsukishima froze in his tracks, and Tadashi could almost see the muscles in his shoulder tensing. "You seem to have had enough pleasing for the day. Maybe try again tomorrow."

"That's not fair!" Tadashi cried as he gripped Tsukishima's wrist to keep him from stalking off again. "I wanted to tell you."

Snorting, Tsukishima said, "Why? So I could gouge out my mind's eye repeatedly because every time I see you, I'll see  _that_  instead?"

Tadashi sighed and dropped Tsukishima's hand before rubbing his eyes. "Why are you so mad?"

"Why am I so mad?" Tsukishima's laugh was cold and humorless. He turned to Tadashi with a look that bordered on pity. "He might have changed a little bit, but he's still him and you're still you. How long do you think it will be before he makes you hate him, too?"

The words lanced any remnant of Tadashi's earlier good mood. "Tsukki, why are you being this way? You're supposed to be my friend and support me. I would do the same for you."

A nasty smile slashed across Tsukishima's face. "Oh, really?" When Tadashi started at his icy tone, he added, "So, if I told you who I liked, then you'd listen to me talk about it even if it made you really uncomfortable?"

"Of course," Tadashi said without hesitation, though he had an ugly feeling that Tsukishima was going to say something unnecessarily cruel. His tendency to do this had waned over the years, but here and there, Tadashi had to remind himself that this was not the real Tsukishima. The 'real' Tsukki loved dinosaurs and music and pretending not to care; this dark Tsukki knew how to cut the legs out from under someone in one sentence or less.

But what threw Tadashi off-kilter the most was the soft touch on his cheek and the even softer words: "Maybe I told you a hundred times, Tadashi, and you just weren't listening."

The gears threw themselves into motion as Tadashi processed this new piece of information. "Y-you like  _me_? W-why?"

Tsukishima rolled his eyes. "Probably for the same reasons Bakayama-sama does. Or are you forgetting how upset you were for him being upset with you over it?" He turned away from Tadashi again. "If you want to talk later, fine. But leave the slobberfest out of the club room, will you? The club is starting again soon, and I really don't want that image in my head when I go into that room. Especially when — forget it."

With that, Tsukishima walked back down the street and left a reeling Tadashi behind him. He stood there silently, lower lip quivering, for what seemed like forever before he woodenly navigated himself back into the gym.

Kageyama had set up most of the equipment, and Tadashi was grateful. Maybe he could sweat out this sour feeling that was lingering inside of him after his talk with Tsukishima. He was glad stretching and warm-ups were second nature to him at this point, or else he would have ripped something for sure.

For the first twenty minutes of their practice, neither of them said a word. Tadashi knew Kageyama was worried when he spent more time looking at him with an intense frown than at the ball. Finally, Tadashi decided to put them both out of their misery when he caught the ball and put it back into the cart.

"Tsukki isn't happy," Tadashi said without preamble. "He thinks you'll make me hate you like your old teammates did and you'll break my heart." He left out the variable of Tsukishima's confession because that felt too private to share.

The ball in Kageyama's hands bulges under the pressure of his white-knuckle grip. "He doesn't know anything. I would never do that to you." He stared at the ball in his clenched hands. "He can be shitty to me, I don't care. He shouldn't act like that to you, though."

One by one, Tadashi prised Kageyama's stiff fingers from the volleyball and let it dribble away unheeded. "I care. What you did in the past doesn't mean you don't deserve respect for who you are now." He cupped Kageyama's cheek and brushed a feather-soft kiss to his lips. "You let me worry about Tsukki. If you did something wrong, I promise I would tell you. This is something he and I have to work out between us.

This answer seemed to satisfy Kageyama, and they went back to their practice. Tadashi helped Kageyama hone his aim with the jump float, and Kageyama helped him keep his spikes in bounds. By the time noon rolled around, both of them were beyond ready for food.

As they left the gym, Kageyama's hand reflexively sought Tadashi's, and their fingers laced together as they headed straight to Yuki's rather than take their bags out of the gym or fuss with a shower. Yuki didn't care if they smelled a little salty if they didn't. "I raised four boys," st, he had said. "I have seen things, Tada-chan. Things no one should ever see."

At this, Tadashi and Kageyama had politely laughed past their abject horror and thanked her for her understanding. Kageyama couldn't look her in the eye for the rest of the day, which Tadashi thought was ridiculously cute. However, this meal was easy-going and without brain-searing imagery, and they parted with a hug each from Yuki, since this would be the end of their frequent visits.

"You boys take care, now," she warned. "And tell that whelp Ukai to stop poisoning you lot with his terrible convenience store food."

"B-but I like meat buns," Kageyama stuttered, his eyes averted.

Yuki's eyes narrowed. "Then you get them from me. Tada-chan loves you too much for you to waste away eating garbage."

"Yes, ma'am."

As soon as they were out of range of the restaurant, Kageyama shivered. “I think she might be scarier than Oikawa-san.”

“I think you might be right,” Tadashi agreed before squeezing Kageyama’s hand. With a crooked smile, he teased, “Better not break my heart, then.”

Kageyama’s shoulders went rigid, his jaw set in a determined line. “I promise.”

Tadashi chuckled and shook his head before bumping shoulders with Kageyama. “I was kidding, you know. But that’s really sweet.” He snagged Kageyama’s other hand and tugged them together for a quick kiss.

They resumed their trek back to Tadashi’s house, but as they were toeing off their shoes, Kageyama asked suddenly, “Yamaguchi, do you, um . . . get tired of kissing me?”

“No!” Tadashi scoured his mind for anything he had done to give Kageyama that completely erroneous impression. “How could I get tired of something that feels so amazing?”

Lowering his head, Kageyama muttered something that Tadashi couldn’t hear; however, he had a pretty good idea where his train of thought was going. “If this is about what Tsukki said about you making me hate you, stop it.” The sharp jolt his words spurred in Kageyama answered his question. “I like kissing you because it feels nice and because I like _you_.”

Both of their faces were burning red, but Tadashi would say cheesy things like that until Kageyama decided to start believing them. “Confession time,” Tadashi added, not quite sure he could look Kageyama in the eye as he said this, “half the time when we leave for six o’clock practice, I don’t want to go because I’d rather lie in bed and cuddle with you than end up with sweaty underwear.”

Kageyama covered his face with his hands. “You say such embarrassing things.”

“And I will until you believe them.” With that, he tugged Kageyama to his room and toppled backwards onto the bed. Kageyama landed on top of him with an ‘oomph.’ “So, what do you say we blow off practice?”

Blinking in surprise, Kageyama seemed to genuinely struggle with the decision. Tadashi had only been partially earnest about the suggestion, as he knew how adamant Kageyama was about his training. But to see Kageyama actually consider it and not refuse outright, it made his heart beat a little bit faster.

“Okay.”

Tadashi’s eyes grew wide. “Really?”

Kageyama gave him a strange look. “Why not? It’s not official practice, and I . . .”

The rest of his words drifted off into nothing, but Tadashi could swear he heard, “I really like kissing you, too.”

Humming in contentment, Tadashi wriggled over to give Kageyama room to lay down before burrowing into his side. He draped an arm over Kageyama’s hips and traced lazy circles on his side. “This is nice.”

“Yeah.” Kageyama’s voice was rough. “Nice.”

His limbs tangling with Kageyama’s warmth, it didn’t take long for Tadashi’s eyelids to droop and then to be lulled to sleep by the subtle salty scent of Kageyama’s skin.

When he woke up, Tadashi couldn’t see his clock, but the last vestiges of the sun slipping down the horizon told him that he had slept for over four hours. It also meant that his parents, or at least his mother, would be home. “Crap.”

Kageyama was still asleep, clutching Kuma-chan protectively, which almost made Tadashi forget that his parents were not only very unaware that he was interested in more than just girls, but that he was seeing someone already. He really didn’t want to wake Kageyama, but as the arm not cradling his teddy bear was currently entwined his own, Tadashi lightly shook Kageyama’s shoulder. With a grumble, Kageyama began to stir and turned over to sleepily blink at Tadashi with a disoriented look on his face.

“We should get up,” Tadashi whispered. “I think my parents are home.”

His words took a while to register, but when they did, Kageyama quickly slipped out of bed and looked around warily. “Do you want me to hide?”

Tadashi chuckled. “No, that’s okay. I’m allowed to have people over. Just not quite up to explaining the cuddling yet.”

Nodding, Kageyama stared at the bear in his hands before gently placing it next to Tadashi’s pillow. “I could jump out the window,” he offered. “Do you want me to jump out the window?”

“No!” Tadashi rubbed his temples before grabbing his laptop. “Here, I’ll do that thing I told you. How to find music on the internet.”

It took a lot of fumbling with shaking fingers, but soon Tadashi’s anxiety slipped away as he showed Kageyama how to access free music services from around the globe. They almost forgot the reason for the worry until Tadashi’s mother knocked on the door.

“Tadashi, there’s tempura from Yuki-san’s out here if you’re hungry,” she called through the door.

“Is Dad home?” Tadashi asked nervously. His mother had met Kageyama already, but his dad had not.

There was silence for a solid, disconcerting moment before she replied, “It’s okay. You and Kageyama-kun can come out.”

Kageyama and Tadashi looked at each other before the latter hesitantly opened the door. Tadashi’s tired-looking mother, Mitsu, gave them a warm smile before ruffling Tadashi’s hair. “Honestly, I expected to find Tsukki-kun here, but Kageyama-kun is also a very nice surprise.”

Bowing, Kageyama said, “Pardon the intrusion, Yamaguchi-san.”

Mitsu grinned at him. “Tadashi’s friends are never an intrusion. Now, come on out and have something to eat.”

They followed Mitsu into the kitchen, who made them all plates of tempura before pouring them all glasses of milk. Tadashi didn’t miss the little almost-smile from Kageyama as the large glass was set before him. There was a quick blessing and little talk as Tadashi discovered that he was hungrier than he thought he would be.

After the meal finished, Tadashi began to clean up and Kageyama followed suit, and they ferried the remnants to the kitchen. As he filled the dish pan, Tadashi said, “You don’t have to help. You’re a guest.”

Kageyama’s cheeks pinkened as he resolutely scrubbed a barely-dirty plate. “I want your mother to like me.”

“She already likes you.” Tadashi finished two cups and all the chopsticks as Kageyama still scrubbed the life out of the same plate. “Just calm down. If she saw anything, it doesn’t mean we’re in trouble. It only means I will have some explaining to do after you leave.”

A frown threatening, Kageyama asked, “Are you going to tell her?”

Tadashi shrugged. “Might as well.”

His nonchalant tone, however, did nothing to assuage the anxious knot in Tadashi’s throat. He didn’t want Kageyama to worry, but telling his mother about himself and about the two of them was a huge deal to him. While he thought there was a very slim chance of hate or rejection, the possibility still existed and therefore presented itself in his mind in the form of a hundred ugly scenarios.

They returned to the kitchen, and after Kageyama went through the typical niceties of being a houseguest, Tadashi sat back down at the kotatsu across from Mitsu. "Mom, can I talk to you about something?"

She raised a brow. "Is this perhaps to do with your guest?"

_She knows_ , Tadashi's panicked brain screamed as he forced himself to squeak out a 'yes.' Would she be mad? Would she make him quit the team? Would she make him switch schools, or send him to one of those places that de-programmed gay kids? Would she forbid him to see Kageyama again, or the rest of their friends?

Tadashi was shaking, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do to stop it.

A warm hand slid over Tadashi's shuddering one, and he looked over to see Kageyama look like he did before a match: razor sharp concentration and a jaw set tight enough to snap. He had no idea whether Kageyama was as nervous on the inside as he was, but Tadashi was grateful for his calm presence because it gave him strength to climb this mountain of a confession.

"Mom," he started, even though no one in the room thought he was speaking to anyone else. "Over the past few years, I've had time to think about a lot of things. Why I don't always fit in, why I don't have a lot of confidence, why my friends are carefully selected. Why I feel so different." He gave Kageyama's hand a squeeze. "I kind of figured it out a while ago, but with things going the way they have, it seemed like the right time to tell you."

Taking a fortifying breath, Tadashi plowed on. "I'm pansexual, Mom. I like girls, boys, and everyone in between, and Kageyama is my boyfriend."

Mitsu regarded both of then carefully before cracking a gigantic smile. "And now your father owes me a thousand yen. I told him you'd tell me first, but he thought it would be one of those dumb man-to-man things. And also that you would end up dating Tsukki-kun."

As she spoke, Tadashi's jaw sank lower and lower in shock. "Y-you knew? How did you know?"

Her smile never faltered. "I think I'll save that for later. I don't want to embarrass you in front of Kageyama-kun." She turned her attention to Kageyama. "So, how long have you been interested in Tadashi?"

Kageyama started, clearly not expecting to be addressed. When he recovered, his face scrunched in concentration before answering, "A year?"

Tadashi whipped around to gape at Kageyama. "A whole year? And you didn't tell me until like a week ago?" He covered his face with his hand and huffed. "I can't even believe this is happening."

"I thought you and Tsukishima were together," Kageyama admitted. "And I thought there was no way you could like someone like me."

"And what would 'someone like you' be, Kageyama-kun?" Mitsu asked softly, but Tadashi knew Kageyama needed to answer this question well. It was the tone she used when she gave Tadashi a chance to explain himself after misbehaving.

"Someone broken." Kageyama shrank into himself a little, like he did when he talked about middle school. There was shame almost emanating from him. “I’m not good at making friends, Yamaguchi-san.”

Mitsu scoffed. “Well, you’re polite, Tadashi seems taken with you, and you’re cute as hell. As long as you make the right friends, who cares how many you’ve got.”

With that, she reached over, patted Kageyama on the shoulder, and yawned. “I’m going to bed, boys. Don’t stay up too late, but you’re welcome to stay as long as you like as long as your parents know where you are.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Kageyama stood and bowed.

“Enough of that, now,” Mitsu said as she rubbed her lower back. “If you and Tadashi are dating, then you’re a part of the family. I’m sure he’s told you about our greeting policy.” Kageyama nodded vigorously. “Good. Now, have a good night, boys, and doing do anything too naughty. Get to know each other, first. You won’t regret it.”

Tadashi’s cheeks felt like they were on fire by the time his mother stopped talking and left, but there was a strange smile on Kageyama’s face. “What?”

“Your mom is . . . so cool.”

“ _How_ are you not dying of mortification right now?” Tadashi playfully punched Kageyama in the shoulder. “That was the most embarrassing conversation of my life.”

Shaking his head, Kageyama said, “No. The talk. I wanted to die.”

“Oh, yeah. That was bad.” With a soft smile, Tadashi planted a quick kiss on Kageyama’s lips. “And none of that even applies to us.”

There was a rumble in the back of Kageyama’s throat before he said, “Too bad.”

 

After a quick call to Kageyama’s mother, who had not even returned home yet, he was cleared to stay the night at Tadashi’s house. They both settled into bed early, not even bothering to roll out the futon Tsukishima usually inhabited when he stayed over; instead, Tadashi nestled under Kageyama’s arm and enjoyed the weight of the arm slung over his middle.

As they both began to give into their drowsiness, Tadashi murmured, “Do you think I can fix things with Tsukki?”

Kageyama snorted. “You’re the only one who can stand his shitty personality. Whatever it is, he needs to get over it.”

“It’s not always that easy.”

“No, it isn’t.” Kageyama’s deft fingers stroked Tadashi’s hair. “But if I can get you to like me, anything’s possible.”

Tadashi smiled into Kageyama’s ribcage. “I do like you.”

“Then everything will be okay.”

Yawning as his eyelids drooped shut, Tadashi pressed a soft kiss to Kageyama’s side before drifting off to sleep with a smile on his face.


	7. Chapter 7

Come six in the morning, Tadashi was wide awake, and his rested mind felt erratic next to Kageyama’s rhythmic breathing. Those thought centered around the same theme, over and over again:

He had one day to fix this rift with Tsukishima before school started and everyone they knew noticed.

Curious, he flipped on his phone and checked an online multi-player game that he and Tsukishima frequently played, and sure enough, the Goblin Lord was cutting swaths through the land at an alarming pace. His friend was definitely awake.

Tadashi sent a text with a simple request.

→ Can we meet up today?

An immediate answer wasn’t expected while Tsukishima was mid-round, but one came anyway.

← I guess. Any particular reason?

Wincing at the icy tone that practically bled from the response, Tadashi frowned at his phone. How could he say ‘I know this is weird and I don’t know what to do and I want to ask you but that’s impossible, so I just want to be around you until one of us figures this out’ without putting it so bluntly? But then he shrugged off that particular inhibition — words were Tsukishima’s territory, anyway — and said exactly that.

The response was not fast in coming. Tadashi could swear it took an hour, even though only five minutes passed, for Tsukishima to reply.

← Will he be there?

→ We could meet up around eleven. He and I usually practice between ten and noon, but I can ask Yachi if she could come to make sure he doesn’t overdo it. We haven’t had ice cream in a while.

← Fine.

With a sigh of relief, Tadashi huddled back under Kageyama’s arm and waited for the alarm to go off at seven. He was a tiny bit disgusted but not at all surprised at how easily Kageyama woke up. As soon as the tone sounded, he was almost vaulting out of bed. While he was already awake, Tadashi wanted to hide under the covers and avoid telling Kageyama that they wouldn’t be practicing together this morning.

For all his assertion that he was dumb about people, Kageyama was not entirely clueless about the situation. “You should talk to Tsukishima today,” he said after they finished brushing their teeth.

Tadashi looked at him in surprise. “Oh! I, um . . . you don’t have to worry about that.”

Kageyama raised a brow. “Why? It’s obviously bothering you. You haven’t talked since we got up.” Suddenly, his face leeched of color. “You’re not . . . mad at me, are you?”

“No!” Tadashi cupped Kageyama’s cheek and gave him a sweet smile. “I know you don’t always think the same way the rest of us do, so I wouldn’t keep you in the dark about something that important.”

Kageyama touched Tadashi’s hand, relief etched into his features. He hated that Kageyama was this insecure. It would take a lot of time and effort for his boyfriend to stop assuming the worst about himself, but just like fixing the maimed relationship with Tsukishima, Tadashi knew it was worth it.

“I’m meeting him at eleven, just so you know.” Tadashi found no reason to leave this out, and he hoped Kageyama could share in his optimism. “I was going to ask Yacchan to come toss some balls to you, if you still want to practice.”

Nodding, Kageyama dropped both of their hands to the side and squeezed. “I can just do serve practice on my own. No need to bother anyone.” At Tadashi’s dubious look, Kageyama shook his head. “I won’t overdo it again. You were right to do what you did. I would’ve done the same to you.”

“Okay,” Tadashi agreed. “You’ll need your key back before school starts anyway, since you’re going to be the first one to practice every day again.” Kageyama huffed and nodded, and Tadashi smiled. “I thought so.”

With that, he rustled around in his sock drawer and pulled out the ring of two keys, complete with a smiling volleyball keychain. “I trust you.”

Kageyama took the keys with a deference that made it seem like he was receiving a great boon and not just a set of keys. Tadashi wished he had pictures of all these cute little moments where Kageyama seemed so out of character, so he could look back on them and wonder where that adorable dork had been hiding the past two years.

After that, they went out for a run before having a large, protein-heavy breakfast that Tadashi’s mother usually laid out for him on game days. She had left for work before their alarm had gone off, but a neat row of covered dishes were laid out on the kitchen counter with a note for them to enjoy.

“Remind me to pick up some flowers for her,” Tadashi said with a grin. “I don’t tell her enough how much she does for me and how much I appreciate it.”

Kageyama eyed the spread with a dazed look. “All of this is for us?”

Nodding, Tadashi explained his pre-game food ritual and added, “I kept telling her I wasn’t a regular and that I wouldn’t need half as much energy as this kind of thing would give me, but she always said that I never knew when the day would come that that would change.” He shrugged. “She was right.”

“Well, don’t stop now, because she’ll be right many more times.” Kageyama pulled out a couple of plates and set them on the counter. “You’re going to be a regular this year. Not because you’re the captain, but because you’re good.”

With no further comment, Kageyama doled out huge heaps of food for both of them while Tadashi stared at him. The best player on their team thought he was good, and he knew what a prize that was. Kageyama was different when it came to volleyball; he wouldn’t give empty praise like that, whether Tadashi was his boyfriend or not. If Kageyama thought he was good enough to start, Tadashi was willing to believe that it might be true.

His appetite was vastly larger than Tadashi had thought it would be, and he ate with gusto. Kageyama’s usual polite table manners around elders was non-existent; the human garbage disposal he recalled from training camp had taken their place. It was gross, but kind of cute how Kageyama didn’t bother with chopsticks and merely shoveled food in his mouth with a fork.

After eating, they both went out for a slow run, only picking up the pace when they were sure they wouldn’t throw their breakfasts back up. It was around ten when they arrived at the school gym. Tadashi helped Kageyama stretch, and he joined in for a bit of receive practice before parting ways to meet up with Tsukishima.

As he made the familiar trek to the ice cream shop half the school frequented, Tadashi’s legs felt heavy underneath him. He wanted this talk to happen; he _needed_ it. That didn’t change, however, the dread he felt at the idea of Tsukishima wanting to avoid him. The idea of having to choose between the two of them made Tadashi feel like hiding under his bed forever, and neither of them deserved that sort of wishy-washiness from him.

Tadashi walked so slowly that he arrived five minutes later, earning him a glare from Tsukishima, who was standing next to the door. “You didn’t get lost, did you?” Tsukishima scolded.

Cringing, Tadashi said, “Sorry, Tsukki.”

The words brought a hint of a smile to Tsukishima’s face. “Shut up, Yamaguchi.”

The ease of their old camaraderie gave Tadashi more hope than he had dared to have before he had arrived. There was no malice in Tsukishima’s tone, and he thought that his best friend wanted this resolved and put behind them just as much Tadashi did.

They ordered sundaes — salted caramel for Tadashi and strawberry for Tsukishima — and sat way in the back of the shop. Nobody spoke until they could see the bottom of their dishes. It was Tadashi who broke the silence. “I think we have a chance to win it this year.”

Tadashi wanted to kick himself for the lamest icebreaker in history. They weren’t two middle-aged men chatting about the sports page. Tsukishima was his best friend and deserved his best efforts.

To his surprise, however, Tsukishima merely nodded. “Either you or Hinata will be moved to wing spiker this year. Probably you, since Hinata still can’t receive worth shit. Your height will add a lot to our blocking game.”

Tsukishima polished off the rest of his ice cream and pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket. “I actually had some ideas about rotations and situational play, if you want to take a look.”

Taking the paper, Tadashi studied it and found the logic to be completely sound. “Looks good. I don’t know what our crop of first years will be like, but we should bank on at least one of them making the starting roster. Last year’s batch almost made Ennoshita-san step off the court and let them have his job. Coach was so annoyed.”

“Don’t even think about trying it, Yamaguchi,” Tsukishima warned. “You’re starting this year. Not because you’re the captain. You’re good, and you’re getting even better. Yachi-san is very impressed with your power levels and receive consistency.”

“Really?” He knew Yachi was fairly new to volleyball, but Tadashi was aware of how much effort their manager had put in to learning the game alongside Takeda-sensei. For her to say that to someone else and not just to make Tadashi feel better about himself was a gift to him. Though he wasn’t sure if it was too early to mention, Tadashi admitted, “Kageyama said the same thing to me this morning.”

At this, Tsukishima rolled his eyes. “You’re always so surprised when someone says something nice to you. If Kageyama-sama can break you of that habit, I wouldn’t even find it annoying.” After this, Tsukishima watched him carefully before asking, “This morning?”

“Yeah.” Tadashi gulped. “He, um, stayed the night.”

Tsukishima’s jaw clenched, and Tadashi knew he was gritting his teeth. “You didn’t —”

“No!” Tadashi’s face was aflame. “It’s not like that. We’ve only been together for a week.”

“Good.” Tsukishima took his empty bowl and set it inside Tadashi’s own soupy remnants and tossed them in the nearest garbage. When he returned, he said, “If he hurts you, I _will_   break his arm off and beat him with it.”

Tadashi’s eyes widened at this violent declaration. He didn’t think Tsukishima would carry through with that threat, but the implication threaded into the statement was hard to miss. “Does that mean you’re, um, okay with us?”

“Not really,” Tsukishima replied with folded arms. “But he seems to make you happy, and it’s about time you were. If you ever felt that way about me, I’d be happy, but if you haven’t by now, you probably won’t. There’s no use whining over it.”

While it didn’t fix everything, Tadashi knew that this was an important step. They weren’t past the specter of Tsukishima’s feelings hanging between them, but it meant that they were both going to try. There was nothing they couldn’t do together.

“By the way,” Tadashi mentioned, “I was planning on telling you about us. I just didn’t want to rush things with him because he’s so awkward and down about himself, and I wanted to ask him who we wanted to, well . . . come out to. I couldn’t betray his trust in me.”

At this, Tsukishima smiled very, _very_ slightly. “Sounds like you. Sounds like him, too. Maybe you two will be okay.”

“I hope so.”

The ice cream and much of the rift between them gone, Tadashi and Tsukishima headed towards the gym the long way, detouring through the park. They passed the bench where Tadashi and Kageyama had shared lunch and their first kiss, but he chose to keep that fact to himself. At least for the moment.

When they arrived at the gym, there was more than one voice there. Kageyama was mercilessly spiking balls at a panting Hinata, who was digging more of them out than not. It took a while before either of them noticed that they were no longer alone.

“Yamaguchi!” Hinata greeted him with a bright grin. “I remembered you two practiced in the mornings, and I thought I might come join you.”

“You need it,” Kageyama growled. “You’re as bad at this as you were our first year. Dumbass Hinata.”

“Shut up, Bakayama! I don’t have my own keys to the gym.”

“Keys won’t help you, you uncoordinated moron.” With that, Kageyama sent a particularly powerful spike Hinata’s way, who was surprisingly able to pop it back up to a decent setting height. “That was just lucky.”

Tadashi chuckled as he watched Kageyama and Hinata squabble, and it felt like the team — their team — was back to normal. Kageyama wasn’t hurt anymore, Hinata could step on the court with his best and most powerful ally, and Tsukishima was standing next to him.

“We’re gonna win,” Tadashi said under his breath, and he thought he might have imagined Tsukishima answering quietly: “Damn right we are.”

 

The four of them ended up practicing together for a bulk of the afternoon until Tadashi demanded they stop to make sure Kageyama didn’t over-do it. He expected Kageyama to protest, but true to his word, he heeded Tadashi’s wishes and immediately began to warm down. Hinata’s surprise was obvious, but Tadashi was grateful that he didn’t have to make a scene over it.

After they all cleaned up, Kageyama asked, “Can we go get some food?”

Hinata’s eyes were bright in agreement, and even Tsukishima nodded. “Sure,” Tadashi confirmed. “You want to go to Yuki-san’s, or maybe we could do Ronso’s again.”

“Aren’t we a little old for cartoon chicken cartons?” Tsukishima chided.

“Never,” Kageyama answered. “And the fried cheese balls have been touched by the gods.”

“You actually ate fast food?” Hinata said in surprised. “I thought you weren’t allowed.”

Kageyama shrugged. “My mother doesn’t need to know.”

The decision made, they all piled into the dining room at the chicken place and ate their fill while poring over Tsukishima’s paper and discussing the various changes they might be making.

The rest of the afternoon was spent burning through far too much money at the arcade, where Tadashi had an almost religious experience watching Kageyama and Hinata have a grudge match at Dance Dance Revolution. Tsukishima took a few covert pictures with his phone of their ridiculous faces, and Tadashi may or may not have asked to have them sent to him. For reasons.

It was past five before they left the arcade, and Hinata asked the question Tadashi had been waiting for. “Can we go practice again?”

“No,” Tsukishima said flatly. “I’m not sweating for three hours with you idiots.” When Tadashi opened his mouth to ask Tsukishima to be nice, his friend surprised him. “But we can do a two on two match. We still owe you a smackdown.”

The slew of trash talk washed over Tadashi in a familiar tide, and he was happy. His boyfriend and his best friend were speaking, and while it wasn’t perfect, it was enough that they were trying. Both of them.

For the hell of it, they got into the supply cabinet to sneak out the old black and orange uniforms the school had bought way back in the time of the Little Giant. That was almost ten years ago, but Tadashi loved every worn fiber of these jerseys. They stood for something strong and proud, and no amount of pilling or mending could take that away.

Tadashi pulled out numbers one through four. There were two of each, a black and an orange, but there was a silent agreement that the team would always wear the black except for the libero, so Tadashi didn’t even touch the orange set. He handed Number Four to Hinata, Number 3 to Tsukishima, Number 2 to Kageyama, which left Number 1, with the small captain’s mark under the number, in his own hands.

All of them looked reverently at the jerseys, and Tadashi traced the outline of the number with his hand, ending with a halting stroke of the captain’s mark. This was his team, these were his teammates, and this was his badge of honor. The person who helped him the most to get there was standing next to him, calmly sifting through a hopper of shorts for the right sizes while swatting back Hinata’s greedy hands.

Finally, they were all ready to hit the court. Hinata bounded out to get into position, with Tsukishima following at a much more sedate pace. Kageyama was going to take off after Hinata, but Tadashi tugged his sleeve to get him to hold back.

“I don’t think I could’ve asked for more than this,” he said before linking his hand with Kageyama’s.

“I want to win for you, Tadashi,” Kageyama replied quietly, and inside of Tadashi, his heart bounded with joy.

Tugging them close together, Tadashi pressed a searing kiss to Kageyama’s mouth. “I think I already have.”

After a couple of catcalls from Hinata and Tsukishima, which Tadashi blithely ignored, they stepped into the gym hand in hand, not letting go until they had to take their places on opposite sides of the court.

Kageyama grabbed a ball from the hopper and tossed it over the net to Tadashi, who snagged it and walked back to behind the service line. Tsukishima gave him a nod of encouragement, and Tadashi decided to try something he had worked on over the summer while practicing on his own.

A more or less textbook jump serve sped to the other side of the court, slamming right into Hinata’s surprised face.

Tsukishima huffed but smiled, Hinata rubbed his nose before giving a thumbs up, and Kageyama gave him a wicked grin. “Nice serve, Captain.”

“Then why don’t you receive the next one, _Vice_ -captain.”

The ball rolled back, and they resumed play. The game lasted well past three sets, but nobody kept score. Well, Tadashi figured Kageyama and Hinata were, but they had the grace to keep it to themselves because they were probably winning.

But that didn’t matter. When they stepped onto the court the next day, it would not be as opponents, but as teammates and as friends. And when he stood next to Kageyama then, he would proudly take his boyfriend’s hand are dare anyone to think they were anything but invincible.


End file.
